


Of Arrows and Loaves

by passionately_curious



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Compliant, Drabbles, F/M, Gen, Kissing, Multi, Recreational Drug Use, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-30
Updated: 2015-07-28
Packaged: 2018-02-11 03:03:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 69
Words: 78,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2051100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/passionately_curious/pseuds/passionately_curious
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Collection of Hunger Games drabbles from my tumblr account. Most (98%) are Evelark but there are a few other pairings.<br/>If you'd like to send me a prompt of your own, head over to my tumblr at mitchesbcray.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Beauty of Who You Are - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angylinni requested "something based off the lyrics of this song - one of my favorites :) Marc Broussard - The Beauty of Who You Are"

> _There’s a faith you’re savin’ for a rainy day I could use right now There’s a way you move my soul to sing Only you know how You are a sensual salvation You’re the holiest temptation Baby I’m never, never, never gonna be the same_

I stand in the doorway of the extra bedroom in our home, watching Lydia and Peeta as they paint. She seems to have inherited her father’s eye for beauty, even if she can’t always get her brush to imitate it. He encourages her with smiles and kisses and when she accidentally swipes the wrong color across her canvas and starts to tear up, he takes the brush from her hand and does the same to his. She’s a perfectionist, but if Daddy says it isn’t ruined, then that must be.

That’s the way Peeta sees things, I’ve learned. Bruised, scarred, broken down, maybe, but never ruined. He reminds me of that every night, whispered in the dark when we’re huddled under the blankets in our bed. It took me awhile to really hear what he was saying, longer still to trust them. But those words gave me the strength I needed to be vulnerable again; to create Lydia and accept and welcome her imminent arrival. To remember what we had been through hadn’t ruined us. Lydia wouldn’t be here, and neither would the baby, kicking ferociously as its father and sister’s laughter fill the tiny room.


	2. Altered States - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> StreetLightLove requested a non-weepy drabble. Thanks SunFishDunes for taking a look at it and adding your sassy comments.
> 
> Prompt: Everlark getting stoned  
> Warning: Recreational Drug Use

"Lilah, stop tormenting your brother when he’s in time-out!" Katniss scolded her daughter, who was currently running around the living room dancing and chanting ‘Andrew is a baby, stick his head in gravy’ over and over. Andrew, in time-out because he bit Lilah’s finger deep enough to draw blood, responded by yelling just as loudly that he was NOT a baby and Lilah was a poopyhead. Katniss had had enough.

When Peeta walked through the door after his shift at the bakery, he was greeted by his childrens’ voices still arguing about something–and really it could be anything at this point–and the hard glare of his frazzled wife. He kissed her cheek. “Hi, honey.”

Her glare deepened. “Hi, honey? Really? After the day I’ve had, the day your kids put me through, that’s all I get is a ‘hi, honey’?”

Peeta smirked. The last week had been particularly rough in the Mellark household. Between Andrew’s biting problem and Lilah’s newfound attitude, they were not making it easy on their parents, particularly on Katniss. “Don’t worry, my love, I’ve got something else for you tonight.”

"Peeta Mellark, I know that tone. What are you up to?" She asked, stepping back from him and inspecting his face.

He kissed her again then turned to his kids. “Lilah, Andrew, how would you like to go visit Uncle Haymitch tonight?”

"Da-ad" Lilah whined. "Uncle Haymitch is so bor-ing." Much to her father’s annoyance, the girl had acquired a particular skill at elongating words into multiple syllables.

"I’ll go!" Andrew announced with a triumphant grin. "I LIKE Uncle Haymitch." He stuck his tongue out at his sister.

Lilah narrowed her eyes. Andrew hated Uncle Haymitch’s house just as much as she did; he was only saying that to make their parents happy. She smirked, a gesture so reminiscent of her mother’s, and shrugged her indifference. “Sure. Sounds fun.”

 ***

"You owe me big time for this, Boy," Haymitch reminded Peeta when he dropped the still bickering kids off. They immediately ran to the backyard where Haymitch’s geese were squawking.

"The kids have been stressing Katniss out lately.. She needed a break before she completely broke down," Peeta explained with a weak smile. Even still, over twenty years since the Games and the War, Katniss didn’t handle stress well and Peeta was always concerned that she’d slip into the illness that overtook her mother.

Haymitch could relate; he didn’t want the girl to get sick any more than Peeta did, which meant he was always open to having to babysit the Toast Babies (as he had affectionately nicknamed them) whenever Peeta asked. “The kids’ll be fine,” Haymitch assured him. “You go take care care of the girl. Oh!” He patted his grimy pants pocket and pulled out a small plastic baggie of dried plants. “This might help.”

Peeta  swiped the bag out of Haymitch’s hand and stuffed the baggie into his own pocket. “How much do I owe you for it?”

But Haymitch shook his head. “You two need this more than I do. You still have that pipe Mason gave you?”

Johanna Mason had been by to visit a handful of times since the end of the war. One of those visits came after finding out the Star-Crossed Lovers never experienced any of the “altered states” the Capitol had to offer. They both had been reluctant, but Johanna assured them she would only bring something mild and that grew naturally in District 7.

As a gift, she left them a hunter green glass pipe with bits of orange swirled in and the assurance that if they ever wanted more, she or Haymitch could provide it.

***

When he arrived home, Katniss was standing over the stove, stirring a large pot of what he presumed to be stew. “We should eat outside tonight,” he suggested. “It’s a nice evening.”

He grabbed an old blanket from the hall closet and fished the pipe from the back of his underwear drawer.  It was the perfect evening for them to watch the sunset and relax.

"Thank you for getting Haymitch to watch the kids tonight," she said after they finished their stew and laid back on the blanket. "We definitely owe him for that."

"Not just for that," he corrected, pulling the pipe and baggie out if his pocket and setting them next to her.

Katniss chuckled and shook her head. “Oh, Haymitch. Thank you so much.”

Sitting up, Katniss began to pack the weed into the pipe and blazed up. Inhaling as long as she could, she released the smoke with a heavy cough and content sigh. They passed the pipe back and forth until the bitter end was all that remained. As mild as it may have been, the high hit them quickly. Peeta’s smile, which was always radiant, had doubled, and he laid back down on the blanket to look at the stars.

  
Katniss pulled stands of grass from the yard and giggled as she sprinkled them over Peeta’s chest. “What are you doing?” He asked when blades of grass fell onto his neck.

"Decorating," she answered. "I’m thinking about us switching roles. You stay home with the tyrants and I’ll go to the bakery."

"OK," he agreed, brushing off the grass she just dropped on his forehead. "Just try not to burn the place down."

She was silent for a moment and he worried that he may have offended her or killed her buzz, until she began laughing so hard she snorted. And Katniss rarely laughed that hard. It was infectious and soon they were both shaking and breathless. Katniss laid her head on his chest and looked out at the stars with her husband. She laughed when he made up stories about the shapes he saw in the sky, adding in her own details which made the stories even more ridiculous. They giggled like they should have when they were teenagers, when they had been too busy trying to survive and fighting imaginary– _and real_ –monsters. These nights, when they didn’t have the kids and could just be, made those years seem like a distant memory or bad dream they could forget about for a few hours.

"I love you, Peeta Mellark," she whispered when his fingers began scratching her scalp.

"I love you, too, Katniss Mellark."

The next morning they woke covered in a thin layer of dew when the sun began to rise. Stretching their limbs, Katniss yawned. “Guess we should go relieve Haymitch, huh?”

Peeta nodded, reluctantly. “Probably should.” He cocked an eyebrow mischievously and tapped the baggie that had wound up under Katniss’ leg. “But maybe we should enjoy this morning a little first. Then make breakfast. Waffles?”

She grinned and began preparing the pipe for a morning smoke.


	3. Wink - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fine Line to Cross outtake written for Freaky Fic Friday. Dedicated to ALongLineOfBread and YourPeetaIsShowing.
> 
> Rated M for sexually explicit situation. And a rather NSFW pic...

It all started with a wink that made Katniss blush and Peeta chuckle.

“Is that something you’d be interested in, sweetheart?” he murmured, his lips brushing over her ear.

She shivered. “I hadn’t ever thought about it,” she answered, unable to keep her eyes off the redhead who had walked past. Gale and Darius’ taunting resonated through her memory but she truthfully had never actually considered they were right. “Why?” She turned to face him. “Are you?”

He shrugged. “I’m a guy. Of course I’m interested.”

***

It started with a wink and ended with the three of them holed up together on Peeta’s bed. Peeta sat behind Katniss, his arms wrapped loosely around her and his chin resting on her shoulder, acting as her last bit of protection, in case she changed her mind. But she agreed to this, said she wanted to try it at least, was interested in the idea, was…oddly turned on by the images her brain had been conjuring up. She had never been sexually attracted to women in the past. Even now, knowing she was clearly about to cross a line and have a real sexual encounter with a woman and was excited about it, she knew if Peeta weren’t here, the interest would be lost.

"We could start but just kissing," Jess suggested, reading the nervousness on Katniss’ face. "Have you ever kissed another girl before?"

Of course she had. She had often kissed her baby sister in the mornings and Madge was never shy from public displays of affection with her. But this was different, this wasn’t about the friendly, affectionate kisses or sisterly pecks on the head. “No,” she admitted. “Will I like it?”

Jess smiled and scooted closer to the pair. Peeta loosened his hold around her, allowing Katniss to move closer to Jess as well. “I hope so,” she laughed. “It’s a lot like kissing a guy only…better.”

"Better?"

"Different, I suppose. But definitely better," she confirmed. "Softer, more gentle, but more knowing. Men and women like to be kissed differently so they tend to kiss differently." She ran her thumb over Katniss’ lips in a sensually slow manner. "Close your eyes if you’re unsure."

Katniss nodded and with one look over her shoulder, she closed her eyes. She waited anxiously for Jess to crash their lips together, to feel the pressure she had gotten used to with Peeta’s kisses. Instead, there was a feather-light touch, almost as if their lips weren’t really touching. Light pressure intensified slowly and Katniss could feel the difference immediately. Jess kissed her with intensity, sure, but not like any guy had. When her tongue slipped out, it didn’t instantly attempt to invade her mouth, but instead licked around Katniss’ lips in conjunction with her kisses. Jess was right. It was different.

Katniss let out a small breath of air as they pulled away. She cracked her eyes open to find the red-head watching her. “Wow.”

"Not bad?"

"Not…not bad at all." She felt Peeta’s hand on her back, his fingers pressing into her shirt. "Can we do that again?" She felt like a virgin all over again, asking permission for what she wanted, and it sent an electric shock through her. She and Peeta were still learning, sure, but there were certain mechanics that didn’t take long to remember.

She and Jess took their time kissing, learning, exploring. She found that while it was indeed good and different, at some point, she missed the familiar feel of Peeta. She could hear his deep breathing so the next time the women broke apart, she reached behind her to pull Peeta toward her, kissing him. He wasted no time in showing his approval, his tongue seeking entrance into her mouth almost instantly. She groaned into him as Jess began to plant kisses on her exposed neck. Her senses were on high alert and she needed more. So when she felt her shirt begin to rise up her body, over her head, she only protested because of the loss of contact. Jess made quick work of Katniss’ bra and began to lavish attention to her breasts.

"Ahh!" Katniss moaned, breaking contact with Peeta.

"You like this?" He whispered in her ear, both of them watching Jess nip and suck at Katniss’ nipples. He reached around and began rolling her other between her fingers, making her gasp again. He replaced Jess on Katniss’ neck, tonguing and kissing down the highly sensitive skin.

"More."

It started with a wink and ended with all three of them kissing and touching each other’s naked bodies. Katniss was becoming more comfortable with Jess, taking the lead with their passionate kisses, combing her fingers through the other woman’s red locks. They would both let out small noises of pleasure as their tongues twined together. Peeta took the opportunity to slip his fingers down Katniss’ body to her core. She moaned Jess’ mouth as he began to pump them inside of her. Her nerves were already humming so it didn’t take long for the sensation to wash over her and her body to lift off the bed before her release.

“Wow,” Jess breathed, taking in Katniss’ gasping body and flushed olive skin. “Think we should take care of him now, since we’ve given him quite a show already?” She winked and pulled Peeta between them, laying him back on the bed. Leaning down over him, Jess extended her tongue and slowly licked his cock from base to tip, drawing a sharp gasp from him. She looked up at him, strands of her red hair falling in her face, a smile forming on her lips.

“I didn’t think you were into men,” Katniss wondered aloud.

“I didn’t think you were into women,” Jess answered back. “It’s about pleasure. He pleases you, I please him, you please us.” She took Peeta’s entire length in her mouth. The sensation was overwhelming and he immediately groaned, forcing himself not to buck violently into her mouth. It didn’t help when Katniss pulled Jess’ hair out of her face and wrapped it around her fist.

Her mouth was so different from Katniss’, a point made clear to him when the two began trading off, each taking him in their mouth for a few strokes before passing it back over to the other. They worked in tandem, licking and sucking him, pausing to kiss each other just in view of him, bringing him quickly to the edge over and over again, teasing him mercilessly until he was panting and begging for his release.

“Not yet,” Katniss chastised him. “It’s about pleasure.” She mimicked Jess’ words with a sly smile. She turned to the ginger with an apologetic shrug. “I don’t want him to fuck you”

“Can I at least watch?”

“I would like that very much.”

He almost came then, between the notion that someone wanted to watch the two of them fuck and the newly seductive side of her that made her so comfortable saying what she wanted in that voice. Instead, he watched her straddle over Jess and begin kissing her again, tepidly tracing the contours of her naked body down to her center.

Peeta knelt behind Katniss and ran his hands down her bare back, landing firmly around her waist. She didn’t pause her exploration of Jess as she looked over her shoulder at him, her grey eyes shining brightly at him in anticipation. “You ready?” He mouthed.

She nodded. “Yes,” she mouthed back.

He wasn’t prepared for how wet Katniss still was, whether from her last orgasm of what had happened since, but he wasn’t one to complain. He slid into her, pausing as her body stiffened and adjusted to him, even after all this time.

“Oh fuck!” She cried out, unable to contain her own voice. Her words dissolved into incoherent groans and helpless whimpers as he started thrusting into her from behind. Jess stroked Katniss’ hair, brushing the damp tendrils out of her face.

“Katniss,” Peeta instructed, slowing his thrusts down. “Give her pleasure.”

She looked back over her shoulder. “What?”

Peeta bent over, his chest resting against her back. “She’s made you feel good hasn’t she? Return the favor.” He looked at Jess. “Show her.”

Peeta and Jess worked together to stabilize Katniss and Jess reached for Katniss’ hand, guiding it up her leg to her warm center. There was some fumbling at first, but soon she found the combination of pressure and rhythm that had Jess moaning. Peeta continued to thrust into Katniss, hitting that spot deep inside her that she needed more of.

The women resumed their kissing, tongues winding more together with each thrust. Peeta grabbed a fistful of Katniss’ hair, pulling her head back slightly, giving Jess full access to her neck. Their breathy sounds began to crescendo and filled the room, echoing off the walls. Which one of them came first, the women weren’t sure, but whoever did triggered the other’s, and ultimately Peeta’s. All three collapsed onto one another with passionate moans and labored breath.

When Peeta went to the bathroom to get a towel to clean them up, Jess began to gently kiss Katniss again to help her come down from her orgasm. “So how was it? Your first time with a girl?”

“That was…incredible. Feeling it was…oh God. I didn’t do enough for you, did I?” Katniss attempted to cover her face with her hands but Jess stopped her.

“Oh, honey, you did a lot. I knew this would be new for you.” When Peeta came back in, all three rearranged so Peeta was spooning Katniss from behind and Jess rested her head in the crook of Katniss’ neck in the front.

“Thank you,” Peeta whispered as sleep began to overtake them. “You’re too good to me, you know that?”

Katniss snorted and leaned back to kiss him, oddly content with being sandwiched between the two, both of their hands still tracing patterns over her skin.

***

Katniss woke up with a gasp, clutching Peeta’s sheets around her body. She whipped her head back and forth, eyes scanning the dark room. She shook Peeta’s arm violently. “Peeta!” She hissed. “Wake up!”

He slowly opened his eyes and ran his hand through his bed-ridden curls. “What’s wrong, Katniss?”

“Where is she?”

“Where is who? The cat’s in her bed in the living room, where she always goes when we move too much,” he joked.

“No, not the cat! I’m talking about…” She felt her shoulders deflate. It wasn’t real, it hadn’t happened. “I must have…I’m just going crazy or something.”

He pulled her back against his bare chest. “Good thing you’re sleeping with a psychologist, huh? We’re big into crazy. But for now, let’s just go back to sleep. We don’t have to be up anytime soon.”

She resigned and listened to his familiar, steady heartbeat as he fell back asleep. It was a dream. It was all a dream. Triggered by a wink that made Katniss blush and Peeta chuckle. That wink was the last thought she had as she drifted off to sleep.


	4. Stuffed - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by the picture below. Written for ALongLineofBread

“Hey, Katniss?” Peeta called into the garage.

She popped her head into the doorway, her knees covered in a fine layer of dust. “Yes?”

“Uh, Haymitch is on the phone for you,” he answered, holding up the cordless. “Want me to take a message or-”

“No!” She exclaimed, hopping to her feet. “I’ll take it. Thanks, honey.” She kissed his cheek and shut the door between the house and the garage behind her.

He stood, slightly puzzled, on the other side of the door for a few minutes before shaking his head and muttering under his breath. She had been spending so much time lately in the garage, always coming out and instantly heading for the shower without so much as a word to him. He could swear he smelled something on her, something new, something different – not the normal scent of her hunting excursions. And now that old kook Haymitch was calling and she actually wanted to talk to him on the phone. Something very odd was going on.

He pulled the meat from the ice box to defrost for tomorrow’s stew and tossed it between his hands. Living out in the country they were pretty reliant on what vegetables grew in their garden and whatever wildlife Katniss happened to shoot. Whatever meat was on the menu tonight was nothing spectacular, not like that venison she shot and dragged into the house by herself a few months ago. No, this meat was small, smaller than the normal squirrel or rabbit she normally brought home. He held it up to his nose. Smelled different, too. Strangely enough, it had a similar scent as Katniss at the end of the day. Very odd, indeed.

Peeta woke up in the middle of the night with a shivering Katniss curled around his form like a koala. He groaned, since he was sure he told her it was going to get cold tonight and she should grab some extra blankets but she was stubborn and told him she’d be fine, but since he was up it would be his job to find her something warm to wrap up in. Luckily, along with the meat from the animals she hunted, Katniss also saved most of the pelts and knew some local tanners who would make them into blankets and jackets. They traded most of them but kept a few in the garage for when it got cold. He stumbled into the garage and flipped on the flashlight they stored near the stairs.

“Ow! What the hell did I…” He stared down at the bit of plastic that had lodged itself into his bare foot. He pulled it out and studied it. “What the actual fuck?” He murmured. What the hell was a toy shrubbery doing in the garage? He turned the light into the small corner where they kept their winter clothes. “Katniss!”

His bellows woke her up. For a soft-spoken man, Peeta Mellark had a real set of lungs on him when he was mad. She scrambled to follow his voice, and stopped short when she saw the door to the garage open. “Shit. Shit shit shit shit shit.” She crept her way down the couple of stairs and over to where he was staring at the floor, the beam from his flashlight pointing directly to where his gaze fell.

“Katniss. What. The. Fuck. Is. This?”

“What are you talking about, Peeta?” She knew playing coy wouldn’t work, not with him. He could read her like a book and he knew she only stalled when she didn’t want to admit something.

“This.” He pointed the flashlight at the scene in front of him.

“It’s, uh, art?”

“Art? No, art is what I painted for you the other day. This isn’t art – this has no meaning!”

She panicked. “It has meaning. It’s, uh, new age. You know, corporate Amerca overtaking nature and controlling the past for…crude oil…” That was bad. It was terrible. She was a horrific liar.

“Katniss! This is two chipmunks riding horses around a corral of plastic dinosaurs! In fact, one of those horses is a deer! Why is a chipmunk riding a deer? Why are there dinosaurs? Where did you even get all this?”

She bit her bottom lip. “Um, well I found the dinosaurs a while ago when we went to that garage sale in town. And, uh, well the chipmunks, you know,” she gestured around her with her hands, “nature.”

“You shot the chipmunks?”

Katniss nodded. “But I saved the meat for you! And you seemed to like it so I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal…”

“That big of a deal? Katniss, there are,” he lowered his voice to a near whisper, “dead, stuffed chipmunks in our garage.”

She smiled at him. “At least they’re not in the house.”

Peeta stared at her for a while, his blue eyes narrowing in thought. “This is utterly ridiculous, you know.” He knelt down in front of the scene and studied it, tilting his head to the left, then the right, then the left again and letting out little sighs. “This chipmunk should be holding his hat in his paw, like so.”

Katniss knelt beside him and watched as he carefully slipped the sombrero off one of the chipmunk’s heads and placed in gently in it’s paw. “Ride ‘em cowboy,” she giggled. “You aren’t mad at me?”

“Not if they stay in the garage,” he answered, wrapping his arm around her. “So when Haymitch called earlier today, it was about this?”

“Yeah. He may have found a gun and holster to use for the sheriff,” she answered, pointing to the chipmunk standing near the dinosaurs. “Thought it might be a nice touch. You’re really okay with this…ridiculous hobby?”

“Of course. Though, maybe don’t keep anymore of the meat. It’s…odd.”

She kissed his cheek. “Deal.”

“Though, I can’t imagine the fumes from this are too healthy for the baby,” he added, patting her still flat baby bump. “You couldn’t have just had food cravings like a normal pregnant woman?”

 


	5. The Water Balloon - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anonymous asked: Everlark 4th of July

“Katniss! Come back, it was just a joke!” Peeta called after his girlfriend, who was stomping through the yard away from him. Just like that they went from partaking in the annual neighborhood Fourth of July festivities to her storming off in a total huff. He groaned and headed after her, excusing himself from the others.

He found her in the front yard, angrily throwing snaps against the driveway, scowling at the world. “Stupid, idiotic, balloon tossing game,” she muttered with each throw.

“You better be careful – the driveway isn’t likely to take much more of that abuse,” he joked.

She looked up at him, eyes hardened and angry. And hurt. “Here to make fun of me some more? I don’t see any of your friends around so I suppose it’s just for your own satisfaction at least.” She throw a snap at him and it landed three feet away from him with a quiet  _snap_.

He sighed and walked toward her, actively avoiding the snaps she was still aiming at his feet, until he was next to her. “Katniss. I’m sorry about breaking that water balloon over your head. It’s just what something we do after the water balloon toss. Didn’t you see Finnick toss Annie into the inflatable pool?” He nudged her gently with his shoulder to get her to smile but it was not happening.

“Yes but Annie and Finnick are married. And everyone loves those two. So it wasn’t embarrassing for them.”  _Snap. Snap. Snap._

“The first time Annie brought Finnick over for a neighborhood thing, he made a complete ass of himself. The boys got him wasted and he started flirting with everyone. I think he even tried to hit on a hedge by the end of the night. Annie was mortified, threatened to never see him again, but you know what? No one remembered after that.”

She glanced at him in disbelief. “Really?”

He shook his head. “Of course not. We all remember it. And we give him hell for it anytime he opens a beer. But we still like him, still invite him to things. We threw them a second reception just for the neighborhood when they got home from their honeymoon. These are nice people, Katniss, you just need to give them a chance.”

“Why should I?”  _Snap. Snap._  “It’s not like they’ve ever been nice to me. I’m still the ‘new girl’ here.”

“To be fair, Darius did offer to help you move in and you told him to ‘fuck off.’”

She snorted at the memory of the boyish red-head popping his head out from next door asking her if she needed some assistance and waggling his eyebrows at her. If she had known just how gay Darius really is, she wouldn’t have even considered that he was hitting on her. But she had been tired and cranky and Peeta wasn’t due to be home for another few hours. So she lashed out and snapped at him. Peeta had just laughed when she told him the story and reassured her that all could be mended with some of Darius’ favorite sugar cookies. “Yeah, all right. That one was on me. I’ve never been so needy with people before but these are your friends and I…I just want them to like me.”

He draped his arm over her shoulders. “My love, they do like you. They think you’re a bit odd and standoffish at times, but you should have heard how much shit they gave me for keeping you a secret from them for so long.”

She bit bit her bottom lip. “Really?”

Peeta nodded. “They do, indeed. Now, if you really want to fit in, there’s one thing everyone has been trying to do but no one has been successful at yet but we think this is the year.” His eye began to sparkle mischievously. “Want in?”

That night, as they all sat in at the end of the street and watched Thom and Darius light off the massive fireworks that filled the air with sparks and lights and thunderous booms, Katniss sat on Peeta’s lap with her head resting on his shoulder. “So,” he whispered, “how was your first Neighborhood Fourth of July party?”

She played with the few curls that clung to his neck thanks to the humidity. “It was great. The best ever.”

“And you forgive me for the water balloon?”

She glanced over at Haymitch, the neighborhood drunk who still had water droplets falling from his hair from when they finally got him soaked with the hose earlier that day. Haymitch caught her eye and lifted his flask toward her. He mouthed “next year,” as he shook his head and she smiled. “Yes,” she answered Peeta. “Besides, we need to start planning our next attack on Abernathy.”


	6. A Peeta in Rye’s Clothing - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> beldarofremulak requested Everlark going undercover as drag queens to infiltrate Snow’s underground lip syncing ring.  
> Thanks to ALLoB for the drawring!

_Panem et Circus_  was the best traveling burlesque show in the country, fronted by the most fabulous drag queen, Sissy Crane. Sissy was known for her fabulous costume changes, hot backup dancers, and for being the best singer in all of Panem. Since she joined  _Panem et Circus_  nearly three years ago, no other show or queen could even dream of touching them. And it was all thanks to the lead backer, Coriolanus Snow, a man whose sudden rise to power in the drag queen world went surprisingly unnoticed by the legions of adoring fans he accumulated.

But not by all the adoring fans.

“There is absolutely no way that was really his voice,” Katniss huffed on the car ride home. She dragged Peeta to see the show, swearing that there were just as many hot girls who stripped in a burlesque performance as there were men so there’d be something for both of them. She loved  _Panem et Circus_  ever since her father took her to her first show when she was a child, back before Snow took over. But something had been changing over the past few years, something she hadn’t really noticed until tonight’s performance.

Peeta shook his head. “Why do you say that? He…she…sounded good. Isn’t that how he…she…usually sounds?”

“She is amazing, always has been, that’s her thing. But it just doesn’t add up. How can anyone have that precise of a vocal range while dancing the way she did?”

“Practice?” He offered, trying to find the rational answer to her issue. Katniss had a tendency to get worked up over little things and he greatly wanted to avoid that. They had been friends since they were children and he had always been the one to calm her down and prevent her from flying off the handle.

“I don’t know. Something’s changed ever since Snow took over. I wish there was some way to figure it out.”

Peeta snorted. “Yeah, like go undercover and expose their dirty secret?” He glanced over at her suddenly wide eyes. “Katniss?” She smiled broadly at him. “No, Katniss, I know that face,” he whined.

She grabbed his knee in a way that almost made him drive off the side of the road. “I have an idea.”

“That’s what I was afraid of,” he muttered once he regained control of his vehicle. “Katniss, your idea almost always result in embarrassing me.”

“This won’t be embarrassing in the least, Peeta! This is going to be like a major undercover investigation! For the betterment of all of Panem! We’d be doing a service for the entire country!” She bit the corner of her bottom lip and gave himthat look. The look that always preceded him giving in to whatever insane scheme she concocted in her head for him. Whether she knew it always worked or not, he wasn’t sure, but there it was. And just like that, he sighed and conceded. She cheered loudly and pumped her fist in the air. “Oh my God, Peeta, seriously. This is going to be the best. You won’t regret this.”

***

“No.”

“But, Peeta! You promised!”

“I promised to help. I did not promise to wear that.” He curled his upper lip at the gaudy sequined monstrosity Katniss was holding out for him. “Where did you even find it?”

She paused. “Peeta. How in the world are we supposed to get you into the amateur drag queen competition with Sissy Crane if you don’t look like a drag queen? We need to expose her and Snow. Besides, I thought gay guys loved drag queens.”

Peeta’s mouth flopped open like a fish fresh out of water. “Uh, um, w-w-well, I mean, I’m, I’m s-sure they do. B-but, uh, I, uh…”

“So it’s perfect. Besides, you’ve got great legs and this dress will show them off like a dream.” She laid the dress on his bed and reached into the oversized gym bag she brought along with her. “Shoes, on the other hand, were a bitch to find in your size. Your feet are huge!”

He blushed slightly, but paled when she pulled out the black heels that had sequins plastered all over them. “Katniss.”

“I even found you some hair!” She cried enthusiastically, pulling a bright orange curly wig from her bag. “Fresh from Effie Trinket’s shop. Don’t worry, I didn’t tell her who it was for. Try it on!” She pushed him to sit on his bed and crawled behind him. He tried to control his breathing as her chest pressed against his back and her fingers combed through his soft curls as she attempted to contain them. She placed the wig on him and began to brush the excess curls up into the elastic band, her warm breath tickling the back of his neck as she worked.

“There,” she cooed into his ear. “Look at you, darling. You’re fabulous.” She indicated toward the mirror on his dresser. He had to admit, it was a sight he could get used to. Not the wig, obviously, but her right behind him, her arms wrapped around his chest, with a huge smile on her face. He smiled back at her, wishing she knew the truth, wishing she was smiling for the same reason, smiling for him. But Katniss Everdeen didn’t date, so he settled for being her best friend instead.

“Yeah, it looks great.”

“Try on the rest! I can’t wait to get started!” She bounced off the bed and closed his door to give them some privacy.

“What? W-w-with you in the room?” He stammered.

She scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous, Peeta. We grew up together. I’ve seen you strip naked before!”

_Yeah,_  he thought, _when we were kids and I didn’t think about screwing my best friend._  He swallowed loudly but it was clear she wasn’t going anywhere, so he quickly slipped off his jeans and t-shirt, praying that he wouldn’t be sporting a boner at the moment. Knowing Katniss, she’d probably read it as some sexual fetish of his rather than him actually wanting her. He grumbled as he pulled on the undergarments that Katniss so thoughtfully bought for him – a bustier with boning that cut into his skin and a pair of spandex bottoms that could keep his dick under control and give him some fake hips. It was thoughtful, in a way, how much Katniss planned this out. He grumbled as he tried to get the stupid dress on and was surprised to find that it actually fit him and somehow gave him faux-feminine curves. “Um, Katniss, I think we have a problem,” he said as she zipped him up.

She glanced around to his front and snorted. “Honey, you have smaller tits than me!” She giggled uncontrollably at the way his dress flopped at his chest. “That is not acceptable.” She pulled out a pair of foam cutouts. “Boobs!” She cried, gleefully, holding them against her own chest. “Look at me, Peeta, I look like a real woman now!”

There were so many things he wanted to say right then – that he didn’t care how big or small her breasts were. That she was a woman, a beautiful woman, a woman he had been wanting since before he even knew what sex what. But he couldn’t because right then, she slipped her hands down his dress to situate the foam breast pads. He had to admit – they were impressive. Even if they were on him.

“We’ll need to decide if you want to wax or do ‘hose for your legs,” she informed him. “No one wants a hairy queen. But that also means you’ll have to shave off this stubble you’ve got going on.” She ran her hand along his jaw and it took every fiber of his being not to audibly moan at her touch. He could feel his spandex shorts fighting his physical reaction. “But for now, let’s get you comfortable in your shoes, Rye.”

“Rye?”

“You need a stage name. I thought it was cute, a play off your name. Plus, when they introduce you, it could be this whole ‘this next honey will make you rise like yeast, here she is, RYE!’” She impersonated Ceasar Flickerman, one of the more flamboyant announcers on the circuit. She shrugged. “Don’t you like it?”

“Well I’ve never heard of ‘Rye’ as a girl’s name but what the hell. It’s better than ‘Sissy’ right?” He sighed. “Ok, Everdeen, get me in these shoes and show me your stuff. Teach me how to be a sassy lady.”

She kissed his cheek and squeezed him tightly. “We’re gonna change the world, Peeta Mellark!”

***

Amateur night at the local gay bar was always packed. For some reason, the idea of local men dressing up like women and parading around stage attracted the residents of District 12 unlike any other event. Peeta and Katniss almost got separated multiple times just in their initial trek backstage to get ready. They weren’t the only male/female duo in the dressing room, most of the men had their ‘beards’ or ‘hags’ with them, but the way they kept eyeing Peeta as he stripped down to his Spandex made him uneasy. Katniss, of course, didn’t even notice, except to comment that a few of them actually looked better as women than men.

She had printed out some make-up tips to help turn his chiseled, masculine face softer and more womanly and when she was done, he swore she added five pounds of liquid and powder to his face. But staring into the mirror was an oddly feminine version of himself. There she was. Rye.

“Ok, well, you’re on somewhere in the middle. Don’t get nervous, you’ll be fine. Just remember to go out there and be fabulous and once you’re done, we’ll figure out how to expose Snow. Sissy’s going to be the last performer of the night, which works in our favor.” She kissed his cheek and smiled at him. “I’m going to go take my place and watch for you.” She waved a wad of dollar bills. “I’m so excited, Peeta! And we’re going to be doing so much good!”

He nodded weakly and watched her hustle out of the room, leaving him alone with the other amateur queens. He took a deep breath and tried to remind himself why he was doing this. He, frankly, didn’t care much about whether Sissy was authentic or Snow was running some shady underground business. It was important to Katniss. And whatever was important to her, was important to him. Obviously, since he was in a dress, four layers of pantyhose, and higher heels than even she had ever worn. When they called his name for his turn, he swallowed every bit of nervousness. This was for her. And he could pretend for her.

Just as Katniss predicted, Caesar Flickerman introduced him with some cheesy line about making all the fellas rise, but for once, he accepted it. It was part of who Rye was now. He slinked onto the stage and the crowd went wild. He caught sight of Katniss in the front row and sent her a comical wink before parading around the stage, singing his version of Madonna’s ‘Vogue.’ He tried not to pay too much attention to Katniss, to make it seem believable, but when he set was over and he did one last move around the stage, he noticed her scowling. One final kiss to the audience, directly just to her, though, drew a small smile from her again.

She met up with him a few minutes after his performance and hugged him. “You were so good, Peeta! I couldn’t believe it! You’ll win for sure!”

He laughed. “Maybe. But let’s remember what we’re here to do so I can get out of these pantyhose already.” He held her hand and pulled her to the backstage area where he had dropped off his musical selection. “I remember seeing something here that made me wonder,” he whispered. The men in charge of the music were busy watching the next queen perform, leaving their stations totally unattended.

“Here! Look!” Katniss pointed to a CD labeled ‘Sissy. Do Not Touch.’ “This must be what the secret is. There’s a CD player in your car, right? Let’s go listen to this and find out what it is!” She smiled brightly and pulled him away from the station, CD in hand, out the back doors to where Peeta parked that night She popped the disc in and they both sat in silence as the music started. “Holy shit!” she exclaimed as Sissy’s voice came through the speakers. “I was right!”

“Lip syncing? Do you think – ”

He was cut off when Sissy’s  _speaking_  voice came on next; making some announcement about how happy she was to be there. “Holy. Shit.” Katniss repeated. “Everything is a fake! And we have proof now!” She held his face in her hands and kissed him on the lips. “We’re really going to do this!” She scrambled out of the car and practically ran back into the bar, leaving him dazed and bewildered.

When it came time for Sissy to perform, Katniss and Peeta made sure they were as close to the music station as possible, so they could make sure Sissy would be exposed. When the music cut in the middle of Sissy’s song and the audience was left watching her continue mouthing along, it was all over. Sissy was disgraced that night and never went on to perform again. It was quickly discovered, thanks to Sissy, or Seneca as he was rightfully known, that Snow was indeed behind it all, and had been running an underground lip syncing ring for some time now, snatching up the best queens from around the area and parading them around like show dogs for his own amusement.

Katniss and Peeta were left backstage, after Sissy was run off, just staring at each other. “Well look at us,” she said with a soft punch to his shoulder. “Changing the world, huh? A girl and her gay best friend.”

“Uh, Katniss,” he countered, pulling his bright orange wig off. “You know I’m not gay, right?”

She rolled her eyes. “Peeta, you don’t have to deny it. I’m your best friend; I love you no matter what.”

“Right. But, um, I’m not gay.”

“Yes you are,” she repeated, her eyebrows knitted together in confusion. “Don’t be stupid, Peeta. In the 18 years that I’ve known you, you’ve never once shown any interest in any girl.”

He stared at her, his blue eyes brighter and more prominent under the heavy makeup she applied to him. “Katniss.”

She shook her head. “No. I’ve seen you practically every day. Name one girl you’ve paid any kind of attention to.”

He reached for her, pulling her hand to run along his jaw. “Katniss,” he repeated. “Why do you think I always go along with your ideas? Most of the time I’m not nearly as invested in this stuff as you are, but they mean so much to you. I’d do anything to make you happy, including prancing around stage in 6” heels as ‘Rye’ singing Madonna.”

“You do look good in those shoes,” she whispered. “And you do have great legs.”

“Oh shut up,” he muttered, pulling her close and kissing her passionately. He had to bend down further than normal, thanks to the even more extreme height difference, but it didn’t matter. He chuckled when they pulled away and ran his thumb over her lips. “This is not a good shade of lipstick for you, Miss Everdeen.”

“Oh shut up,” she mimicked him and went in for another kiss.

 


	7. Dr. Mellark and That Tongue of His - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> idoineedyou requested: Can I get me some Pussy Champ Dr. Peeta Mallark? AFLTC is awesome (and scandalous!) so give me some more of Dr. Mellark and that tongue of his, pretty please!
> 
> A Fine Line to Cross outtake.  
> Rated M for sexual content and NSFW pic below

_She envied him at that moment. Whatever he had been through, whatever convinced him that he would hurt her, at least he was still himself, not some muted, guarded mutt like she was. Self-preservation came late in her life and it came at a heavy price._

_He reached out for her hand and pulled her onto his lap. “Hey.”_

_She rested her head on his shoulder. “Want to talk about it?”_

_He shook his head, intertwining their fingers. Peeta brought their conjoined hands up and gently kissed her fingers, then her inner wrist, smiling when the skin broke out in goose bumps. “I’d much rather do something else,” he answered quietly._

_In one move, he shifted her off his lap and onto the table._

“And what exactly do you have in mind?” Katniss asked. She assumed his different emotional state would lead to something different now, that he would need something other than what they had been doing the night before, she just didn’t know what.

“Patience, Miss Everdeen,” he answered in a purr, his eyes roaming over her nude form. “If you’re a good girl then you’ll be so pleasantly rewarded.”

Her body involuntarily shivered at his words and the way he looked at her. She could see the desire pulsating throughout his body, radiating off him in waves. She couldn’t help but imagine what this must look like to him, the bed sheet sprawled out like a tablecloth, her naked on it with her legs slightly opened, ready for him to devour completely. “Kiss me?” She said quietly, pulling his face to hers.

“Oh, baby, I’m going to kiss you,” he cooed, his lips dancing over the skin of her jaw and neck but never touching. “I’m going to kiss all over your gorgeous body, all the way down to that sweet pussy of yours.” He traced down her torso to her wet center and smirked. “I’m going to make you come so hard you see stars.” He dipped his head down to kiss her. His lips teased hers at first before growing hungrier and more feverish.

Katniss slipped her tongue into his mouth, tantalizing him with her swirling movements. She let out a breathy moan when he nipped her bottom lip with his front teeth. She noticed him first using his teeth during kissing last night and never realized how big of a turn on it was for her. The slight hint of pain coupled with such a sensual act made the chemicals in her brain fire like crazy. “I love when you kiss me like that,” she murmured with a smile as he pressed kisses along her jaw and down her neck. “It feels so good.”

“I can make you feel even better, sweetheart,” he whispered in her ear. “So much better.” His hands skimmed down her body, delicately tracing the skin on her thighs. “Look at my good girl, all ready to go for me,” he praised her in a husky voice as his finger slipped into her wet folds.He slid off the chair onto his knees.

Katniss stared down at him with wide eyes and a faint blush across her chest.

“I can’t wait, baby. I can’t wait to get my tongue between your legs again, to taste you and make you feel so fucking good.”

Katniss’ breath caught in her throat and she wondered if he had ever made a girl come just by talking to her. His sex-laden voice saying  _those things_  made her skin break out into goosebumps. She gasped when she felt his teeth graze her inner thigh on his way to her center. He continued to tease her, blowing warm air over her, sucking and kissing the sensitive skin around her clit without giving any direct attention to where she needed him the most. She let out small whimpers when she felt his breath on her which only made him chuckle against her skin.

“Oh my poor girl,” he mocked. “You’re being so good for me, keeping your legs open for me, letting me tease you.”

She bit her lower lip and furrowed her brow in arousal and frustration. Her hips bucked slightly closer to his warm mouth. The sight of Peeta’s blue eyes peeking between her eyes was more than she could stand. “Please, Peeta,” she whimpered.

“Please what, my darling?” He asked, so close to her that she could feel every breath.

“Please don’t tease me anymore. I need you.” Katniss was gasping for breath now, she swore she could feel his lips ghosting against her, the sensation shooting through her body.

Peeta pressed his lips fully against her, making it so she could feel every word vibrate and form on her. “As you wish, my darling.” He stuck his tongue out and began to gently lick her slit.

Katniss groaned and let her head fall back to the table, ignoring the thud it made or the bump that may form - her hormones were raging hard enough to block out any pain she may have been feeling.

Peeta caressed her insides with his tongue, letting out a low moan of his own as he dug his fingers into her thighs, sure to leave small bruises on her olive skin. He swirled his tongue inside her, plunging it as deeply as he could. Her legs bucked against his shoulders and her muscles clamped around his tongue as he drove her closer and closer to the edge. She came with a loud cry and a whole body spasm. Her pupils were still fat with arousal and the once faint flush on her chest had spread and darkened. He kept his mouth on her during her orgasm, lightly licking and sucking, keeping his eyes glued on hers.

“Huh,” she sighed, finally catching her breath. “That was - what are you doing?” She tried to pull away from his grip when he began licking her overly sensitive clit again. Peeta smirked and held both of her wrists in his hand to hold her in place.

He was slower this time, lapping at her in an unwavering pace. She gasped for air, feeling her second orgasm build more quickly than the last despite the shocks that emanated through her from her sensitive flesh. Eventually, she stopped flinching with every flick of his tongue and began to shake with need again. When he sucked her clit into his mouth, exerting pressure against the swollen nub, her body bucked toward him. He released her wrists and her hands immediately found their way into his hair, pulling him impossibly closer.

He brought one of his hands around to his lips, stroking them along her slit and pushing two fingers inside her. He crooked his fingers inside her, pressing against her slick walls and plunged them slowly in and out of her. At this point, Katniss had stopped making and recognizable sounds, opting instead for high pitched wheezes or deep animalistic moans. Peeta grinned and increased the pressure of his tongue against her clit and the speed of his fingers inside her. He pushed harder and faster, the way her body was begging him to.She began to thrust her hips along with him, pushing her entire bottom half into him. She cried out against him, louder than she had before, her throat hoarse and body taut. He refused to let go of her, pushing her further and further, riding out the muscle spasms until she slumped against the table, completely drained. Only then did he pull his fingers out and give her one last feather-light lick.

He stood up, stretching his stiff leg muscles painfully and smiled at the woman still panting on the table. He reached for her, pulling her up to the sitting position, her body still relatively limp and boneless, but she wore a dazed smile. “Thank you,” she whispered, resting her head against his chest as he picked her up and carried her back to his bedroom. “That was…the most intense…just thank you.”

He laid her down in his bed and kissed her slowly, letting their mouths mold and tongues dance. “No, my darling. Thank you. I may have needed that more than you.”

Her eyes fluttered a few times. “I really want to…uh…pay you back,” she motioned to his hardened cock, straining against his boxers, “but I might fall asleep.” She chuckled, realizing that she was more like a guy when it came to mind blowing orgasms for needing to rest a while.

He kissed her and pulled her tightly against her. “No repayment needed. Sleep. We’ve got all the time in the world.”

 


	8. Breakfast with Pop-Pop - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I’ve been attacked by Cheerios!feels and couldn’t NOT write an Everlark drabble based off one of the adorable commercials. So…here it is.

When Peeta and Katniss officially married and moved in together, they vowed to never keep calendars inside the house. There were too many days that held too many painful memories. It was easier to forget the day Finnick died (August 29th) or Prim died (September 5th) or any of the countless others. They didn’t need to remember Reaping Day or the day District 12 was bombed. Peeta knew when Katniss’ birthday was. And Katniss knew Peeta’s. The date on their marriage license said they were officially joined as husband and wife on March 22, but they didn’t pay much attention to that. They came to realize they had their toasting ceremony when they were children and even though the districts were independent, anything ‘official’ from the government reminded them too much of the Capitol’s control.

 But something changed when Aubrey Grace Mellark came into their lives, with her mama’s hair and daddy’s eyes. They started keeping track of dates and milestones; her first laugh, her first word, her first steps, everything was carefully and meticulously tracked by her parents. For Katniss, it gave her a sense of control and stability. For Peeta, it was for when his flashbacks came back and he needed something to bring him back to the real world. When Katniss was pregnant with their son, calendars became important for Aubrey, who was so excited about a new baby that she relentless asked her parents “how many days till the baby?” until they gave in and sent for an official Panem calendar to teach her how to mark the days.

Through the years, historians began digging through archives in the former Capitol outlining holidays and traditions from before the creation of Panem. Some days were popular right away, like Thanksgiving, and others, such as Halloween did nothing but remind the residents of the districts of the facade and costumes from the Hunger Games and were not included.

“Are there any holidays this month?” Aubrey used to ask whenever they flipped through the calendar. The first of the month was her favorite day because she got to see the different pictures from all the districts. Each district voted and submitted their “picture of the year” to be included in the Panem calendar to represent their lives or changes or memorials. Some months were harder than others on Katniss and Peeta. May, for example, or November, which upset Aubrey because she loved seeing the ocean and the fruit trees. But May made Daddy quiet and November made Mommy cry, she Aubrey never complained.

Once Aubrey was able to read, it became her job to read the holidays to Thatcher, who was often too busy making a mess of his breakfast to understand anything. She would wait patiently for Thatcher to finish gurgling or laughing before continuing on in a calm, even manner. Her mother would shake her head and smirk. “Just like your daddy, Aub.”

On Sundays, Katniss would go into the woods to hunt, leaving the kids in Peeta’s hands for a few hours. Thatcher would entertain himself in a jumping chair that Haymitch put together and verified would hold Thatcher’s sturdy frame by testing it with his biggest goose. Most mornings, Aubrey would go with her mother, chasing butterflies in the meadow and learning which plants she should and shouldn’t eat. She loved spending the mornings with her mama but she was never able to stay as quiet as she was supposed to when they were tracking an animal. When she would break twigs or crunch leaves, Katniss would look back, a fond smile on her lips. “Just like your daddy, Aub.”

Sometimes her mother would go out hunting early in the morning, long before the sun rose, without even waking Aubrey up to see if she wanted to go, too.

“Some days Mommy needs time for herself,” Peeta would tell her when she’d wake up and realize she wasn’t allowed to go. “Some days are harder for Mommy than others.”

Aubrey would nod and sneak peeks at the calendar at breakfast. Those days weren’t holidays, according to what she could read, but they were marked with bright red circles. Peeta told her that those days were “Mommy days.”

“Daddy?” Aubrey would ask.

“Yes, Peanut?”

“Why aren’t there any Daddy days?”

He would smile and hand her a fresh piece of whatever bread he was baking. “Because Daddy deals with his tough days by spending time with you and Thatch,” he explained.

Aubrey took a bite of her bread and thought it over. “So…it’s like everyday is a Daddy day?”

“Exactly.” And that was all it took in the four year old’s mind to cement it as reality.

***

In June, Katniss had one “Mommy day” that was marked on the calendar. As far as Aubrey knew, it was an extra special “Mommy day” because it was the first time that Daddy let her help make bread. It was a very grown up job.

“What kind are we going to make, Daddy?” Aubrey asked, climbing up the stool Peeta brought out for her so she could see over the kitchen counter. “Cheese buns?” She licked her lips. Aubrey loved when Daddy made cheese buns because they were Mommy’s favorites. And hers.

“No cheese buns today, Peanut,” Peeta answered, filling the counter with a variety of ingredients, including different fruits and the tea he and Katniss drank after supper. “We’re making something very special today. It’s called ‘bara brith.’”

“Bar-a Br-ith,” Aubrey repeated slowly.

“Yep. It was my favorite growing up.” Peeta stilled and closed his eyes, grabbing the edge of the counter tightly as Aubrey looked on. She had seen her daddy do this before, but never when Mommy wasn’t around to help.

“D-d-daddy?”

_“Daddy?” A toddler crawled down the steps one morning to find his father hard at work in the bakery._

_He turned and smiled brightly. “Good morning, Peeta. Why are you awake so early?”_

_“Bad dream,” Peeta admitted quietly, clutching his blanket tightly in his hand. “I was ascared.”_

_“Do you want to help me make bread until you’re less scared?” It was nearly three in the morning, far too early for his youngest son to be awake. Thatcher Mellark was sure it wouldn’t take long for young Peeta to fall back asleep. Peeta nodded and Thatcher picked him up and set him on the counter next to the large mixing bowl. “We’re going to make a very special kind of bread this morning,” Thatcher explained, pointing at the dried fruits. He moved quickly and thoroughly, adding the carefully measured ingredients in a dance all his own._

_Peeta watched with wide eyes as his father soaked the fruit and added it to the dough. When he put it in the oven, he poured two glasses of milk and handed one to Peeta. Milk was a rare commodity to just drink. “Don’t tell your mother,” Thatcher winked, taking a long gulp of the sweet liquid._

_Peeta tried to wink back but ended up blinking enthusiastically and taking as long of a drink as he could manage. He was breathing hard as he pulled the glass away from his lips but smiled widely. “Dad? Someday, when I’m big, will you teach me how to make bread?”_

_“Not only will I teach you, Peet, but you’ll teach your kids.”_

_Peeta nodded. “Ima be just like you when I have kids,” he announced, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand._

_“You’ll be better, my son.” Thatcher quietly began making the rest of the dough that would need to be done for the day as Peeta sat quietly. When the timer on the oven went off, Thatcher removed the bread from pan and sliced through it. “One piece,” he told Peeta, “then back to bed, okay?”_

_“Okay.” He stuffed the entire piece in his mouth at once, filling his cheeks out like the squirrels he’d see playing in the yard._

“Daddy?”

Aubrey’s voice snapped Peeta back. He was no long a child sitting on his father’s counter, eating bread in secret because of one of his childish nightmares. He was in his home. His and Katniss’ home. With their daughter standing next to him and their son in the other room. This was now. That was then. His father was dead. He was alive. Peeta shook his head and took three deep breaths. He was alive. He was alive. He was alive.

“Sorry, Peanut,” he finally said, turning to give his daughter a small smile.

“What happened?”

He sighed. “Just remembered something. But I’m okay now.” He ruffled her hair and kissed the top of her head.

Peeta and Katniss hadn’t told Aubrey about the Revolution or their part in it. They would, eventually, but both wanted their daughter, their first sign of hope and life, to remain a child for as long as possible. They grew up knowing that they could be sent to their death simply by having their name randomly drawn from a glass bowl. They wanted something more for their own children. They’d never be able to shield them forever, Aubrey already knew that Grandma Everdeen’ lived in a different district, Grandpa Everdeen died when Mommy was young and Pop-Pop and Nana Mellark died when Daddy was older. She knew Peeta had two brothers and Katniss had a sister once, but not anymore. She knew not to ask questions unless she wanted Mommy to cry or Daddy to lock himself in the attic.

They remained quiet while Peeta soaked the fruit and added them to the dough. She gladly accepted the glass of milk he offered her, drinking long and hard, breathing rapidly when she pulled the glass away from her lips. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand as Peeta continued to mix and blend and knead different breads.

When the timer on the oven beep, Aubrey hopped off her stool and into her chair at the table. Peeta sliced into the hot bread and slid a piece onto her plate. He smiled as she stuffed the entire piece into her mouth in one bite and tried to chew it all at once. He spread some butter over his and ate it slowly, savoring the taste and the memory of it.

“Daddy?” Aubrey asked once her slice was inhaled.

“Mhm?”

“Did Pop-Pop ever give you bar-a br-ith when you were little?”

Peeta took a deep breath, feeling his hands begin to shake. Aubrey reached over and put her tiny hand over his, which did more to calm him than almost anything else he had ever tried. He nodded, “Yeah, he did.”

“Was the bar-a br-ith the same back then?”

“The exact same,” Peeta answered. “Down the fruits and tea. You don’t mess with perfection.”

Aubrey nodded and picked at the second slice of bread Peeta put on her plate. She chewed on her bottom lip and furrowed her brow, deep in thought. “So…” she set the bread down and looked carefully at Peeta. “Us having this bread now is kind of like having it with Pop-Pop.”

Her bright blue eyes held his, even as his began to water. He slid from his seat and knelt in front of her. The lump in his throat made him unable to speak, so instead he nodded and pulled her off her seat into his arms. He crushed her against his chest and rocked her back and forth.

When Katniss came home that afternoon, exhausted from her trek to lake deep in the woods, she found Thatcher passed out in his jumping chair and Aubrey napping against Peeta’s chest, a book open on her lap. She picked up Thatch and carried to to the couch.

“Peeta?” Katniss whispered, waking him up without shaking Aubrey. She sat next to him and brushed a few strands of hair from his forehead. “Hey.”

“Hi,” he murmured, leaning into her touch. “Have a good hike?”

“As good as a hike to the lake can be,” she admitted. “I miss him so much, Peeta. This is a stupid holiday.”

Peeta shifted and wrapped his arm around his wife, who leaned against his shoulder. “I don’t know, there are worse ones, don’t you think?”

Katniss shrugged. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “You smell good. Did you guys bake today?”

“Bara brith,” he confirmed, his breath hitching slightly. “I thought it’d be nice if Aubrey got to try it today.”

 “And?" Katniss looked over at him and saw his eyes begin to water again. She smiled against his shoulder and stroked Aubrey’s hair. “Just like your daddy.”


	9. Eating Crow - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I wrote a drabble. Inspired by a video I watched about a woman who's girlfriend told her she was not romantic. And she set to prove that girlfriend wrong. :)
> 
> The song used is "Arms" by Christina Perri.

Peeta was just putting the final touches on the lamb stew when he heard Katniss slam the front door closed. He smiled and put the lid on the pot so she would be surprised by the dinner he decided to make for her. She had been so stressed lately – when the government shutdown, her position at the Panem National Park was deemed as non-essential so she wasn’t getting paid despite having to go in to actually do her job. The park could afford to keep a few employees on schedule but it basically meant she was doing the work of three, for nearly twelve hours a day, for the pay of half of a person. Even being outside the entire time wasn’t enough to lift her spirits.

He heard her kick her boots off and grimaced when they hit the wall with a loud thunk. “Hey Katniss. How was work?”

“Fucking pointless,” she grumbled. “Like always. I’m just fucking tired of it. Those fuckers are still getting paid to squabble while I’m trekking through the damn park to track the animals and check plant growth and keep it somewhat presentable for whenever it opens up again for less than minimum wage.” She slipped her jacket off and was about to toss it over the arm of the couch when Peeta stepped up and took it from her. He put it and her boots away in the hall closet and gave her a long hug. She sighed and relaxed into his body. “Sorry. It just was another shit day. And Gale was there, being…”

“Being Gale,” Peeta chuckled. He wasn’t too fond of Katniss’ childhood friend and co-worker but he had to admit it was nice knowing she wasn’t at the park entirely alone. And he other man had backed off his ‘scary big brother’ routine since he had taken up the hobby of ‘ranting about the government.’ “Sorry, honey.”

“It just sucks.”

“I know,” he said, rubbing her back. “But, why don’t you go upstairs and shower and I’ll have dinner ready.”

Katniss trudged up the stairs into their master bedroom. She turned the shower on and let the steam fill the room before stripping off her clothes and stepping in. She scrubbed her hair and let the soapy mix rinse down her body. She rested her head against the wall and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, her water had cooled down and her skin was wrinkly. She rinsed her hair and turned off the shower, reaching for the towels that they always kept next to the shower. She wrapped herself tightly in one, reveling in the warm fluffiness that was a freshly dried towel and braided her damp hair back. Normally she’d let it air dry down but since she had to go to work in the morning, she opted to leave it as it was.

Slipping into a pair of Peeta’s old high school sweatpants and a ratty t-shirt she was thankful that she and Peeta had been together for long enough that he didn’t care about what she wore to bed. When they first started dating, and living together, she wore lacy camisoles and form fitting pajama bottoms every night. But they got into a pattern that she didn’t realize she liked so much better. They were more comfortable now, less afraid to freak the other one out with the normalcy of their lives together. It was exactly what she never knew she wanted from him. They were so perfectly happy with each other in this odd domestic bliss. After the shitty childhoods both of them experienced, they didn’t want or need anymore stories. She wanted a simple, basic life with just the two of them. She wanted this for them – to go to work and come home and just be with each other. They didn’t have to go out and be wild and crazy every night like some of their friends did. They could eat take-out and watch bad reality shows and drink cheap beer instead of overpriced wine.

“Katniss?” Peeta called up to her. “You hungry?”

Her stomach gurgled in response. Because she had to track the baby animals today, she had to scarf down her lunch, leaving her famished the rest of the day. “Coming!” She shouted down. Clambering down the stairs, she couldn’t figure out why the lights were dimmed and the room was so dark. She peaked into the kitchen, where they tended to eat dinner together, but he wasn’t there. She followed the soft, flickering light into their very unused dining room and stopped short in the doorway.

The so-called dining room was almost instantly turned into Peeta’s art room when they moved in almost six years ago. She was used to seeing the mahogany table covered in a thick fabric caked with paint. Instead, a soft white linen was laid across it, accenting the dark wood, and two full dinner sets were placed at either end. Candles were lit in between the place settings and fabric napkins were folded into intricate shapes next to the plates. Peeta was spooning a decedent smelling stew into the bowls. There was a mixed greens salad with fresh vegetables on the plates and warm buns in a wicker bowl.

“What is this?” She asked. Everything was so fancy, so much fancier than she had ever seen with him. He knew she was never into the “girly girl” things and so he never pushed her into situations that made her uncomfortable. Even when they went out on date nights, they were low key – nothing even close to the spread he had laid out for her in their own home. Peeta himself was dressed up, in tight dress pants and a light blue button up that matched his eyes. She glanced down at the oversized sweatpants she was wearing and picked at the hole in the bottom of her shirt.

Peeta finished dishing out the stew and looked up at her. “I made dinner.”

Reaching over, she flipped the lights completely on. “Yeah, but why are we eating in here? And why is it so over the top?”

His smile faltered and he let out a soft sigh. “I wanted to make it special for you since you’ve had such a rough week.”

She frowned. “I was hoping to just sit with you, since I haven’t had a lot of time to…just…sit.”

Shaking his head, he blew out the candles. “Yeah. Yeah, no problem. Living room? I’ll go change and then bring dinner out.” He walked past her without saying a word and made his way upstairs.

She huffed. He knew she didn’t like these kinds of things, so why did he think this was the best way to get her to relax? And now he was going to get all moody, which only stressed her out further. He was so much like his father in that way – closing off when he was upset and just ignoring the problem rather than dealing with it. It was always painfully clear when he was mad but he’d never talk about it. And it did nothing but frustrate her. Rolling her eyes, she moved the entire meal out to the coffee table in front of their couch. She fished two bottles of beer from the fridge and set them on coasters – figuring at least he wouldn’t get mad about the rings on the table she often left because she didn’t ever think about coasters. She plopped down and flipped the television on, trying to find a show they both would enjoy before settling on some Food Network show. She loved it because she reveled in the competition aspect and he would always get great ideas or share some sort of bakery secret he learned from his family. It was the best of both worlds for them.

When he sat next to her, she kissed his cheek and snuggled close to him, letting her stew cool. This – them sitting on the couch together, his hand resting on her knee, her head on his shoulder – was exactly the way she wanted to spend her evening after a bad day at work. They fell into a comfortable silence, broken only by a few of her groans at the idiotic thing these competitors were doing, or him grunting about their technique and telling her why it would fail. And both of them laughing when it inevitably did fail.

“Thank you, for the stew. It was delicious,” she told him when they prepared for bed. She leaned over and kissed him gently, smiling at him. “Really, this was just perfect.”

He nodded but didn’t say anything, instead stripping down to his boxer shorts.

“Peeta.”

“Yeah?”

“You’re mad at me.”

He climbed into bed and rolled onto his back. He turned his head to look at her, biting the inside of his cheek as he considered what to say. “It’s just…never mind. It’s okay. I love you, Katniss.” He turned over to turn off the bedside lamp when her hand reached out to stop him.

“No, Peeta, tell me. What is going on with you?”

He sighed. “Katniss…you are the least romantic person I’ve ever met in my life. And, honestly, I’m fine with you not doing anything for me but you can’t even let me do something for you. You don’t let me take care of you in my own way.”

She rolled onto her elbow. “But you know I don’t like stuff like that, that I prefer what we actually did – just sitting on the couch together.”

He flipped his lamp off. “Did you ever think that maybe I like doing those things for you? I’ve got an extra early morning tomorrow. I’ll…I’ll try not to wake you up.” He kissed her forehead and wrapped his arms around her. She listened to his breathing level out until he fell asleep and she was left alone in the dark. She was mad. She was frustrated. But she was also confused.

* * *

“Seriously, Katniss, if you kick that rock at me one more time, I’m going to send your mopey ass home.” Gale snapped. Katniss gave the rock one last kick with the side of her foot.

“Sorry,” she grumbled. Her day at the Park had just begun and she and Gale were going on their morning pass on one of the trails, just to make sure no one had broken in over night and vandalized anything. She kept her eyes on the dirt path under her feet. She hadn’t been able to get Peeta’s words out of her head all night. They just kept rolling over and over again, making her feel more confused and guilty. “Gale. Am I romantic?

Gale stopped dead in his tracks, causing her to run into the back of him. His body began to shake and a loud snorting laughter ripped from his body. “Katniss. What the fuck? Where did that come from?”

Katniss scowled and kicked a piece of dirt at him. “Stop laughing at me! I’m serious.”

“So am I!” Gale answered, still laughing. “Catnip, look, we’ve been friends for years, right? Even before you got serious with Peeta. And I can assure you that you are, in absolutely no way, even the tiniest bit romantic.”

“Gee, thanks,” she mumbled.

“Oh, come on. You’ve always known you’re not a ‘Madge’ or ‘Delly’. You’ve always just been a ‘Katniss’. You like being outside and getting dirty. You hide your emotions, you’d rather watch hockey or football or some blow-em-up action film than a chick flick. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just who you are.” Gale shrugged. “Where is this coming from?”

Katniss huffed. There was nothing wrong with her. Except she worried that she wouldn’t make Peeta happy in the long run. That someday, even after six years, he’d get tired of her not showing her emotions. Or preferring a night in on the couch rather than going to some fancy restaurant. Her biggest fear was that he’d think she didn’t love him because she wasn’t like those other girls. The girls he dated in high school. The girls who were so similar to him. The girls who easily shared their smiles and laughs and light touches.

The girls who noticed the little things their boyfriends did to make them happy.

After Peeta left that morning, she discovered just how far he had gone to making it a special night. The shampoo she so thoughtlessly used was her favorite brand and scent – and so incredibly expensive they never bought it. He had written her a message in the mirror to read when the steam hit it. Nothing fancy, but a simple ‘I love you’ with a goofy drawing of an elephant. She loved those stupid drawings.

And she loved him. She loved him more than she ever loved anyone else. And she’d be damned if he ever thought otherwise. She’d prove it to him. Not in a ‘Katniss’ way, but so not a single person could ever question it. Especially Peeta.

“Hey Gale,” she started, running to catch up with him. “I have an idea. Think we could really close the park up for the day?”

* * *

Peeta felt like shit all day at the bakery. He didn’t mean to lash out at Katniss about her behavior the night before. He did know what she was like and he was being selfish planning dinner the way he did. Just because he wanted something big and romantic didn’t mean it was what was best for her. He worried that the entire night had done nothing more than push her away from him. He lived in fear that she’d be like her mom and just check out from their relationship. He didn’t think he could live without her if she ever changed. He loved her exactly the way she was. And his whim about wanting more romance in their lives was just that – a whim. He needed to make it up to her, to prove to her that he loved her exactly the way she was. Even if he was a little annoyed at how quickly she ruined his plan.

He made a note to himself to go visit her at the park when he got out of this insufferable meeting he had been dragged into. His father was interested in marketing and selling some of their baked goods to some chain stores to increase their revenue. They’ve been dealing with different reps for the last couple months and so far, Peeta has been far from impressed with any of them. The best deal they had been offered was half a shelf in the bread and cereal aisle.

“Excuse me, Mr. Mellark?” one of Peeta’s baking assistants, Rue, peaked her head into the meeting. “Uh, Peeta, there’s something going on outside and we need you to come take a look at it.”

Peeta sighed. “Can’t you handle it, Rue?”

Her eyes widened and she peered around the room. “U-u-uh no. No, it’s…it’s something you need to handle.”

“Go, Peet,” his father waved. “We can wait until you get back to continue.”

Peeta nodded and pushed his chair out, following Rue to the front of the bakery. He could hear a definite ruckus outside – music and cheers and whoops of joy. As soon as he looked out the front window, his jaw dropped. Standing on the other side of the street were all his and Katniss’ neighbors and friends. His father came up behind him and put his hand on his son’s shoulder. “What is this?” Peeta asked. He made out the definite faces of Delly, his best friend from childhood, the town drunk, Haymitch, who had forged an unlikely friendship with the couple, even his two brothers who didn’t even live in town anymore. “Should I go out there or…”

His father’s eyes were glassy but he just smiled and leaned against the door to leave it open for Peeta to stand in. From somewhere, an acoustic guitar began to play a familiar tune. The crowd parted and Katniss stood, in a pale blue dress, nervously twisting her fingers around themselves. Gale handed her a microphone and she began to sing.

> “I never thought that you would be the one to hold my heart
> 
> but you came around and you knocked my off the ground from the start
> 
> You put your arms around me
> 
> And I believe that it’s easier for you to let me go
> 
> You put your arms around me and I’m home”

As she sang, the crowd began holding up pieces of poster board. His eyes fluttered between the signs and his girlfriend, who looked like she might pass out from the anxiety of singing in public. In the past, he had only heard her a few times, but it was her voice that drew him to her initially.

 _Hi._  the first sign read.

_A little over six years ago_

_I met a guy_

_Who broke down my walls_

_And stole my heart_

_And changed my life_

> “How many times will you let me change my mind and turn around?
> 
> I can’t decide if I’ll let you save my life or if I’ll drown
> 
> I hope that you see right through my walls
> 
> I hope that you catch me ‘cause I’m already falling
> 
> I’ll never let a love get so close
> 
> You put your arms around me and I’m home”

_I want to hear your light snores every morning_

_…And your off-key singing_

_To see your smile_

_…And hear your laugh_

_Take care of you when your head hurts_

_…And let you take care of me_

> "I tried my best to never let you in to see the truth
> 
> And I’ve never opened up
> 
> I’ve never truly loved ‘til you put your arms around me
> 
> And I believe that it’s easier for you to let me go
> 
> You put your arms around me and I’m home”

_I want to candle-lit dinners_

_…And take-out on the couch_

_I want your arms around me_

_For the rest of our lives_

_Forever and ever._

_I want you to stay with me_

> “I hope that you see right through my walls
> 
> I hope that you catch me, ‘cause I’m already falling
> 
> I’ll never let a love get so close
> 
> You put your arms around me and I’m home”

_Peeta Mellark._

_Will_

_You_

_Marry_

_Me?_

> “You put your arms around me and I’m home”

Peeta rushed out of the bakery, ran across the street, and scooped Katniss up in his arms. He spun her around, tears finally breaking free from his eyes. When he set her down she flushed. “So? Stay with me?”

“Always.” He kissed her fiercely, one hand tangling in her hair and the other holding her back. He dipped her down for a dramatic effect, which made her laugh and kiss him deeper. “Thank you,” he whispered against her lips. “I love you.” The crowd around them continued to cheer and blew noise makers as the pair continued to kiss, utterly unaware of the sounds around them or the confetti flying through the air, raining down over the entire street.


	10. 'Tis The Season - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'Tis the season for a Smutty Saturday Story. An outtake from A Fine Line to Cross
> 
> Rated M for sexual content and NSFW pic

“A Christmas party?” Katniss wrinkled her nose when Peeta told her why he couldn’t blow off work and spend the entire day in bed with her. He got lucky and didn’t have any classes on Fridays this semester, so she didn’t understand why he was bothering to make the trek into work at all. Though, she had to admit that she admired the view of his backside filling out the dress pants he just slipped on. As shallow as it was, she missed Peeta’s physical form when she was in Boston. Memories did nothing compared to the real thing.

“Yes, ‘a Christmas party,’” Peeta mimicked, swatting her ass as he walked past. “But it’s not until later tonight, so you can go back to sleep.” He pulled a dark blue polo out of the closet.

She frowned. It wasn’t just that she could go back to bed as much as she wantedhim to come back to bed with her and spend the day watching Doctor Who and making up for lost time. It was their first Christmas since her return from Boston and the first one they’d actually get to spend together. She just didn’t realize that ‘together’ would include the psychology department faculty. “So why are you going in now if it’s not until tonight?”

Peeta sighed and sat on the edge of the bed, running his hand through her hair. “I have that grant proposal to finish up. And I don’t think my data collection is going too well so I have to meet with Haymitch to figure out some contingency plans. And I’ve got about a billion pages worth of manuscripts to go through.” He slipped his fingers in between hers and brought her hand up to his lips. “Believe me, I’d much rather stay here with you.”

Katniss saw the weariness in Peeta’s face. He may have been promoted but it only intensified the pressure he was under to get tenure. And he still had years and years of this ahead of him. She gave his hand a squeeze. “Do we have to bring anything or…”

“Yes. I’ll put the cheese buns in the oven before I leave so all you have to do is pull them out when the timer goes off and keep Buttercup away from them.” He grinned as Katniss’ eyes lit up. “I made a few extra for you to have yourself. Just…don’t eat all of them.”

“No promises.” She pulled him onto his back and rested her head on his chest, listening to his breathing. He would need to leave soon but she wanted to revel in these small moments together. Plus, he had just gotten out of the shower and she loved the way his shampoo smelled. If it wasn’t designed especially for curly hair, she’d use it just to smell him all day long. “What do I wear?”

“Whatever you’re comfortable in.”

“Be careful, Dr. Mellark, because I’m pretty comfortable just like this,” she smirked, indicating her t-shirt and underwear combination that she always slept in. “Seriously, though. I’ve never been to a faculty department Christmas party. Is this like a dress party? Can I wear jeans?”

Peeta sat up and stared into his closet. Katniss still technically had a lease at her own apartment, but most of her belongings made their way over to Peeta’s. “What about that skirt that makes your ass look great?”

Katniss rolled her eyes but smiled at his suggestion. It was more than just him wanting her to look good, he was trying to integrate her into his lifestyle. She wasn’t just going to be the girl he was seeing at this party, she was going as “Dr. Mellark’s girlfriend.” Before, that potential pressure would have sent her into a spiral. Even now, she felt her heart begin to race. But when she tried to pull her hand away, his grasp tightened. She focused on the way their fingers looked, connecting perfectly together. She fit into his life just like her hand fit in his. “I suppose I could do that.” She leaned up and kissed him, reassuring herself that this was right. This is what she wanted so long ago when he wasn’t able to give it to her. He was making an effort, she could do the same.

He gave her one last kiss before reluctantly pulling away. She cuddled into the warm spot where he had been and waved as he headed out the door.

* * *

Whoever was in charge of putting the psychology department’s main conference room together for the party had gone above and beyond. Twinkling white Christmas lights wrapped neatly around the surfaces, giving the room a winter wonderland feel. The main table had been pushed to one side and atop the fine gold runner were platters of food, most catered from a local company but also including Peeta’s cheese buns, and a scattering of plastic snow. Coffee and hot chocolate, in both adult and virgin varieties, were available at the end.

They found the first sprig of mistletoe when they first entered the room. The overly excited secretary, whose skin gave off a faint green hue in the darkened room, named Octavia, cheered gleefully and clapped her hands together when she spotted them walking in together. Peeta smirked and leaned down, planting a chaste kiss on Katniss’ lips, much to the enjoyment of everyone in the room, who had clearly been enjoying the adult beverages.

Their second experience with mistletoe came when Peeta was introducing Katniss to the professors he worked with and some of their spouses. Because he was one of the newer professors on staff, Katniss was easily the youngest person in the room. She did her best to keep up with what everyone was talking about but found herself drifting in and out of the conversations. “Do you need a coffee?”

She grinned and leaned back against Peeta’s warm body. “Please.”

He led her toward to drink station and prepared her a coffee – extra milk and sugar. “Having fun?”

Katniss rolled her eyes. “Tons. You psychologists are the most boring people I’ve ever met.”

Peeta chuckled. “Only the neuro people. The rest of us are a hoot and a half.” He leaned down and kissed her, deeper than their initial peck and she let out a squeak of indignation.

“Peeta!” she hissed when they pulled apart, staring at the people around her. “What are you doing?”

He glanced up and laughed. “Mistletoe. Seems Octavia has made it her mission to put as much of it around the room as possible.” He pointed out the different corners where sprigs of mistletoe were placed all over the room. “I should have warned you – she ups the number every year. Soon the entire ceiling will be covered in it and we’ll just have an orgy instead of a department party.”

“Remind me to be sick when it gets that bad,” she smiled.

“You and me both,” a gruff voice piped up. “Someone’s got to put that damned fool in her place.”

“Oh don’t be so hard off, Haymitch. I bet we’d finally get to meet Maysilee that way.” Peeta said. Haymitch just grunted and began adding more Irish to his coffee. Katniss’ lip curled in disgust at the man. She had heard a lot about Haymitch and his role in Peeta’s life since joining the university. She but she would never have guessed that the haggard man with stringy dark hair and blood-shot eyes was the one responsible for helping Peeta earn tenure. “Haymitch, I wanted to introduce you to my girlfriend, Katniss.”

Haymitch lowered his cup and set his cloudy grey eyes on Katniss. “This is the one that caused all that shit the last few years? Hardly seems worth it.”

Without thinking, she grabbed a plastic knife off the tray next to her and drove it into the table between his outstretched fingers. “Excuse me?”

He cackled. “Spunky. I like her. You said her name is Katniss?” He took another sip of his coffee and smacked his lips together. “Biology, right? You worked with Beetee. Then…Lyme?”

Katniss’s forehead wrinkled. One second this man was insulting her and now he was rattling off information about her like they were old friends. She nodded slowly, unable to figure out just what was going on with the old man. “How did you-”

Haymitch raised his eyebrows at Peeta. “And here you probably thought I stopped listening to you blab on about her during our chess games, huh?”

“I figured you just tuned me out,” Peeta admitted.

“Well, I did. For the most part. Oh, great, the Dean has arrived.” Haymitch turned his eyes toward the door where a portly man in a deep blue suit was entering. “Dr. Plutarch Heavensbee. Wouldn’t hurt to go make an appearance, Boy. He has to sign off on all departmental promotions. Best to get on his good side early.”

Peeta grimaced. “Probably.” He turned to Katniss, “will you be okay for a few minutes? I’m sorry to run off like-”

She shushed him. “Go. Schmooze. I’m going to steal another cheese bun before they completely disappear.” She kissed his cheek and playfully swatted at him as he headed toward the Dean. She could feel the hardened stare of Haymitch Abernathy on the back of her head. “What?”

He shook his head and let out a puff of air. “He’s a good kid; intelligent, driven, ambitious. He’ll make tenure here without a doubt if he keeps up his pace.”

“Yeah,” she answered, a smile on her lips as she watched Peeta easily converse with Dr. Heavensbee, as if they were lifelong friends.

“It’s my job to get him through this world and I’ll be damned if he almost gives it up again.”

Her head snapped back to Haymitch. “What?”

“After you left, it took everything in him not to quit and run out after you. I’m not one to get involved in other people’s lives because I sure as shit don’t want them involved in mine. But that boy, he’s a good one, and I’m not entirely convinced you deserve him just yet.”

“I don’t know that I’ll ever deserve him,” she mused. “But I’m not running, if that’s what you’re implying.”

“It’s him you need to convince. Aim high, Katniss.” He took another drink of his coffee and tossed the cup into the trash. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to make my supportive appearance.”

* * *

Katniss chewed on her lower lip as Peeta ushered her down the hall to his new office. She felt a blush rise over her cheeks as they passed his old office and the memory of their first Halloween together ran through her memory. She was tempted to ask him if he kept his old desk or if someone else had to use the one they had fucked on that night. She wasn’t sure which she preferred – him having the memory or someone else unknowingly using it. Either idea made her stomach tighten and thighs clench. She heard the sounds of the party grow more and more faint as they made their way down the hall. How no one, especially Haymitch, noticed them slip out was beyond her, but she had had just enough spiked hot chocolates not to bother thinking about it too much.

She let out a short yelp when Peeta pulled her into a dark room and closed the door behind her. He pressed her up against the closed door and rested his forehead against hers, leaning down to capture her lips in a hungry kiss. She moaned into his mouth, pulling on his tie to bring him even closer to her. She tasted hot chocolate on his lips and even though she knew he’d only been drinking the non-alcoholic version, it sent her soaring. She whimpered when he pulled away, but was met with a dim light and his bright eyes shining at her.

“Well, here it is.” He moved away from her, opening his body up to let her take in the more expansive office.

“Oh my God,” she breathed. She didn’t see anything wrong with his last office, even if it was cramped and dark. But this one fit him so much better. The low lighting and warm hues of the paint made it look like a perpetual sunset. “Nice desk.”

“Thanks. It’s mahogany,” he answered in a haughty tone that made them both laugh. In a husky whisper, he added, “it’s new.”

The shiver pulsed from his lips through her body at his implication. She cocked an eyebrow at him, amazed that the two still seemed to have the same thing on their mind. “How long have you-” her words were cut off by another kiss, one that pushed her back against his new mahogany desk until she was sitting on it completely. She released a little moan and began moving her lips against his. Her body felt like it was fire, from her toes to her scalp. She felt his lips mumbling against hers as he kissed her.

“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered against her skin. “I’ve missed you so much.” It was the same thing he’d been saying since she returned – since that first night in her hotel room. They weren’t just words to him, they were promises – he was still trying to make up for the mistakes he made. Making amends by showing that it’s not just physical with her.

He pulled away with a twinkle in her eyes. “What is up with you today?” She asked.

He grinned and glanced up. She hadn’t noticed that one of his arms was raised above her but as she followed his gaze, she saw a sprig of mistletoe in his hand above her head. “’Tis the season.”

He pressed kisses up her neck, back to her lips. Her tongue slipped out, licking his lip and catching his breath. She heard the mistletoe fall to the desk and smiled against him. With a groan, his lips were back against hers; hot, wet, and open. Their tongues met and pushed back and forth. She let out a small whimper and his hands found the their way to her face, pulling her to the edge of the desk. She threaded her fingers through his hair, keeping him flush against her. She felt his cock straining through his dress pants and she shifted her hips so her skirt rode up enough to allow her legs to open wider for him.

His hands slipped down to her waist, untucking her blouse and massaging the soft skin underneath. Before she could stop him, he laid her back against the desk. He began unbuttoning her blouse, his lips trailing behind, causing her skin to shiver. At her navel, he pulled away, rummaging around a drawer in his desk. She lifted herself up on her elbows to watch him. “What are you doing?”

“Looking for…ah ha!” He reappeared with a grin as wide as his face and held up a pair of red lacy panties.

“Wha-wha-what are those?”

He smirked. “Don’t act so coy, Miss Everdeen,” he answered, his voice deep and smooth, almost a purr. He had slipped into the seductive professor she always found incredibly irresistible. “I know for a fact that you tucked these into my pocket one morning before work. Now they’ll serve a very different purpose.” He grasped both of her hands and held them up in the air. He wrapped the lacy panties around her wrists to bind them together. He helped her off the desk and led her over to the door and hooked the binding on the coat rack. Her arms were almost completely stretched out above her head and she was unable to get herself loose thanks to the long twines on the hook. Between her hands, he slipped the sprig of mistletoe he had dropped on his desk. “You’ve been amazing tonight, coming here, putting up with everyone. I wanted to give you a proper…Christmas…thank you.”

Her entire body shuddered as he began to kiss his way down her body. Her blouse was still open and he easily slid the cups of her bra down to expose her dusky nipples. He grinned and lowered his mouth to the peaked bud, with a slow, agonizing lick. She pushed her head back against the door and opened her mouth to scream but his hand was instantly up to block any sound.  _They’re right outside_ , his eyes told her. She nodded and bit down on her lip when he moved his hand from her mouth to her other breast. They had successfully waited the three months to have sex again and the first thing he did was use his tongue to paint strokes all over her body. It was a feeling she was never able to get used to – the control he had to flick and lick with just the right pressure and yet not enough. He was the ultimate tease that she could never give up.

She didn’t fight when his hands ran up her legs, under her skirt. He hooked his fingers around the waistband of her panties and pulled them down in one quick motion, stumbling only to get them over one of her black heels. She felt his lips murmuring against her inner thigh, whispering something she didn’t need to hear to know their meaning. He pushed her skirt up around her hips, leaving her bottom half completely exposed. Her feet were steady on the floor but already her legs were twitching in anticipation.

“Please,” she moaned as he twisted his tongue and sucked on the sensitive skin around her aching core. More teasing. He knew it. She didn’t care. She thrust her hips toward him, needing to feel him where he refused to go. The binding on her hands was enough to frustrate her and cause him to chuckle. She let out an exasperated whine with every puff of breath over her center.

“Keep your eyes on me, my love,” he commanded, repositioning himself on bended knee. He hooked her right knee over his shoulder. He licked a fingers and ran it over her a low groan. “Fuck, you’re so wet.”

Katniss couldn’t explain why hearing that sent shocks through her body and made her ache for him harder. Her eyes were locked on the junction of her thighs, unable to look away from the way him even if he hadn’t instructed her not to.

Peeta ran his flattened tongue up to her clit. He dipped his head further, flicking the bundle of nerves over and over, his grip on her trembling thighs growing tighter. He moaned into her, circling her clit and pulling it completely into his mouth. She dug her heel into his back and he grinned, knowing she was trying to stay quiet. His thumb replaced his mouth and he pushed his tongue into her. Her head thumped loudly against the door and one high-pitched whimper slipped past her lips. He pulled away, his eyes sending the message clearly. _Quiet, baby._

Her other leg was wrapped around his neck and his tongue went back to lavishing her clit. He slid two fingers into her wetness, thrusting slow and hard. Her chest tightened and her breathing stopped, she couldn’t make a sound even though every nerve in her body was screaming. She opened her knees further, pulling roughly on the fabric of the panties around her wrists. Damn, she had no idea a lacy thong could be so resilient. He curled his fingers up, thrusting and twisting inside her, massaging her closer and closer to the brink. She didn’t have time to think when her orgasm hit her. Her hips bucked violently against his face and her entire body went numb. She was lucky he was there to hold her up as her intense orgasm ripped through her.

Usually, after he made her come, he’d continue to tease her, to help her come down from her high with gentle touches and kisses to her swollen clit. But this time, after her muscles ceased their spasming around his fingers, he set her feet on the ground and without taking his hands off of her, rose to unhook her hands. She collapsed against him with a heavy sigh. “That was…fuck Peeta. That was amazing.”

He chuckled and cradled her close to his body. “No, Katniss. You’re amazing. I don’t know what I ever did to deserve a second chance with you. I’ll do anything to make you happy.”

She knew she was the one who didn’t deserve him. She had been in love with him long before she could put it into words. And she would spend every day striving to be who he deserved for as long as he’d allow her to stay. As she slipped her panties back on under her skirt and re-buttoned her blouse – twice because the first time she missed a button – Peeta hid the panties that held her hands together back into a desk drawer. She smirked and cocked an eyebrow at him.

“What?” He asked, turning on his boyish charm. “That was fucking hot. I’m keeping those just in case.”

“You’re a pervert,” she shot back with a grin. “Tying up girls just to go down on them.”

“You’re the one stuck with me.”

“Lucky me.”

He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Nah. Lucky me” He kissed her gently, smiling the entire time. “Ready to go back out there?”

“Think anyone will notice how long we’ve been gone?”

Peeta shrugged. “I’ll just tell them you got too drunk and needed to lie down.” He laughed as she elbowed him in the stomach. “No one will ask. Most likely they’ve pulled a Haymitch and have forgone any kind of mixer with their alcohol.” He opened the door to let them out when she stopped and bent down to pick up the mistletoe that had fallen to the floor. “Putting it back out there?” He asked.

She shook her head. With an evil glint in her eye, she slid it into his pocket. “Oh no, Dr. Mellark. I think I’ve got the perfect place for it. At home.” She let her hand drag over the front of his pants, giving his semi-hard cock a squeeze and walking out of his office with a wink. “’Tis the season and all.”

 


	11. Bags of Flour - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anonymous asked: pretending to be married/fake dating, Everlark

Katniss groaned when she looked at her schedule for the semester. “Did you see what class they added for us? Sex and Domestic Living.” She rolled her eyes and stuffed the paper into her bag.

“Are you surprised?” Madge asked. “The rates of pre-graduation pregnancies have been skyrocketing lately. Maybe they think this’ll help level it out again. If nothing else, it’ll be an easy credit for you.”

Katniss grimaced. Madge had a point, she had basically been taking care of her house and sister for years and she figured there was nothing in the ‘Domestic Living’ portion of the class that she didn’t already know. And her mother gave her THE talk when she was sixteen and suspected that her long days in the woods with Gale meant other things were happening. “Fine. But you’re my partner for any group projects.”

Madge laughed. “Of course. No one else would put up with you.” She pulled the edge of Katniss’ braid playfully. “Come on, darling, let’s go learn to be domesticated.” It brought out a rare Everdeen smile, which was what Madge had been going for the entire time.

Fortunately, the class only had one project that would span the entire semester. Unfortunately, partners were picked at random. And all partners were boy-girl. “Class, your project for this semester is to care for a baby,” the teacher announced. “And these are your babies.” She began setting 2lb sacks of flour onto her desk.

Katniss sunk into her chair as the teacher began drawing name out of two hats to pair the class up. She wasn’t listening, not caring who was being paired up, because she had no desire to do this project. She had already taken care of one person, she didn’t need to pretend to take care of a bag of flour to prove she knew how to be an adult. “Katniss Everdeen and…Peeta Mellark.”

Katniss’ cheeks flushed as giggles filled the room. “Great,” she mumbled, pushing out of her desk to go pick out her bag of flour. Well, their bag of flour.

“Hey, Katniss,” Peeta said, offering her a smile. She smiled weakly back before grabbing the first bag of flour she could reach and hustling back to her desk. Peeta followed after, obviously hearing the rule that new “parents” needed to sit together to start coordinating their schedules and rationing their “income.”

“We should probably give her a name,” he said.

“Her?”

Peeta blushed. “Well…I mean…it can be a boy, I guess. I just figured since there are four boys in my house, it might be nice to have a little girl.”

Katniss hated to admit that all the gossip she had heard about the infamous Peeta Mellark’s good looks really was true, particularly when his boyish features emerged. “A girl is fine. How about Ivy?”

“I like Ivy.” He smiled and immediately began sketching a face on the front of the bag. “I know nothing about raising kids,” he admitted. “I know you do but I don’t want you to have to do most of the work.”

She was surprised. Most of the boys, she suspected, would expect the women in general to do most of the “child rearing” but given that he knewwhat she had been through and still wanted to play an equal role. “You’re a surprise, Peeta Mellark.”

He grinned at her in that way that made her stomach flip in a dangerous way.

Throughout the semester, they would have to periodically update the class about the status of their “babies.” Katniss was not looking forward to having to talk to everyone about how the flour bag was doing, particularly because it wasn’t like she and Peeta spent any great amount of time together. They both worked after school and it wasn’t like they were actually friends who had reason to be together. Plus, she had no interest in public speaking - the thought alone made her want to hurl. Peeta, however, seemed to have no problems talking about Ivy. He told a story about how she had a fever a few weeks ago but that it was typical for a baby that age.

The teacher, along with Katniss, was impressed by his thorough work. “You’re a good BS-er,” Katniss said after class, settling Ivy in the harness provided to them. It was her weekend and Prim was excited about practicing her sewing by making new dresses.

“What do you mean?”

“About all the illnesses and stuff. We don’t get a lot of babies into my mom’s care so I have no idea what’s normal and not. I doubt anyone in there does, so no one could correct you.”

He shook his head. “You’re a card, Katniss.” He patted the top of Ivy’s head. and gave Katniss’ arm a squeeze. “Later, honey,” he winked.

“Bye, darling,” she joked back with a laugh. She leaned down close to the flour bag. “Your dad is a real character, huh, Ivy?”

By midterms, a quarter of the class had divorced their partner and were forced to be single parents, leading to some testy updates. Katniss couldn’t believe that anyone was taking this project so seriously as to fight over a bag of flour, but who was she to judge. “Katniss,” Peeta whispered, leaning over his desk. “Do you mind taking Ivy this weekend? I know it’s my turn but I got stuck working a double at the bakery and-”

“It’s not a problem, Peeta. Maybe Ivy and I can come visit you at work?”

His smile lit up his face. “I’d love that.”

Madge caught up with Katniss after class with a concerned look on her face. “What’s going on with you?”

“What are you talking about?”

Madge looked over her shoulders and nodded to where a group of Merchant girls were huddled together and staring back at them. “Are you and Peeta…together now?”

Katniss snorted. “We’re partners in this project, Madge. That’s all.”

“Then why have you two been eating lunch together every day? And you’re walking to the divide after school all the time. And now you’re going to go visit him at work?” Madge held onto Katniss’ elbow. “And AnnMarie sworeshe saw him kiss you the other day.”

Katniss flushed. They had grown significantly more comfortable with one another over time. He hugged her more often and last Wednesday, when they were headed back inside after lunch, his lips grazed her cheek just enough to send a heat wave through her body. “It’s just for the project,” Katniss insisted, ignoring the feeling in her chest that maybe, for him, itwas just for the project.

He noticed the change in her demeanor right away. “What’s wrong?” He asked, bringing a cookie over to where she and Ivy were sitting at a table in the bakery. He sat down across from her and wiped his hands on his apron.

She shook her head. “Nothing.”

“Come on, Katniss. Something’s going on - you didn’t even ask for a cheese bun this time.”

She laughed, a common occurrence around him now. “I’m fine, Peeta. I’ve just been…maybe we need to step back and remember this is just a class project, you know?”

“Okay…you’ve lost me.”

“It’s just,” she exhaled loudly, “we’re not really together, you know? We got paired up for this project and that’s it. So we shouldn’t act like we’re anything more than that. We need to…to stop pretending like we’re friends.” She couldn’t even look at him as she said those words. Truthfully, they had become friends because of the stupid flour bag but she knew as soon as the project was over that they’d both go their separate ways. What was the point of pretending life would be any different.

“I wasn’t pretending,” he said quietly. She looked up, straight into his eyes. “I was really glad we got paired up because I really wanted to get to know you. But if you don’t want…I mean…if you think…I can stop. I can just be your partner if that’s what you want.”

She rested her hand over his, the warmth from his skin permeating hers. “That’s not what I want. If it’s not what you want.”

They ended up getting an A on the project, which Peeta celebrated by kissing her in front of everyone, making sure to cover Ivy’s eyes with his hand.


	12. Truth or Dare - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anonalece asked: Everlark, secretly a virgin (preferably Peeta)

“Mellark! Truth or dare!” Cato called out over his beer.

“Truth,” he answered, still not over the last dare he accepted which required him to give Marvel a lap dance in front of everyone.

“Best sex you’ve ever had.”

Peeta’s face flushed, which made everyone else laugh hysterically. For being one of the most outgoing person in the group, he was notoriously quiet about his sexual conquests. It was assumed that he was just “too respectful” to boast about all the tail he had gotten, unlike Cato, who boasted his body count to anyone and everyone. “Um..” he cleared his throat and swallowed the rest of his own drink. “That’s not really a polite question with Katniss in the room.”

Katniss and Peeta had just started dating about a month ago and this was the first time he brought her to meet his friends. In typical fashion, what started out as a civilized dinner ultimately turned into a drinking game by the end of the night.

“It’s okay,” she answered, resting her fingers on his forearm. “It’s nice to hear who my competition will be.”

His eyebrows furrowed. “I change my mind. Dare.”

“Pussy,” Cato joked, throwing a pillow at him. “Fine. Then I dare you toshow us your favorite sex position.”

Peeta flipped him off but knew it was better than the alternative. He looked at Katniss who had had just enough to drink to go along with it. He laid her down on her back and hooked one leg around his hip, just high enough to raise her lower back off the floor. He pulled her just a little too hard and their hips grinded together for a short second. Glimmer let out an obnoxious “woop” and said, not so quietly, to Cato that maybe he should try that move tonight. Peeta graciously gave up his turn to Glimmer and dipped into the kitchen for another drink.

Katniss silently walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around his chest. “Hey.”

“Hey,” he answered, turning around enough to kiss her forehead. “Having fun?”

She shrugged. “They’re nice enough. Not really who I expected to be your friends,” she admitted.

“They’re different when they unwind,” he agreed. “But they’re nice enough. Especially with Delly around to keep them in check.”

“Hey, Peeta?”

“Yeah?”

“Who was your best sex? Come on, it’s just me, you can tell me,” she pressed when she saw the same sickly expression cross his features. “I won’t get mad, you know about my history.”

He nodded, but instead of answering, removed himself from her grip and searched through the fridge.

“What was that?” She asked when he mumbled something incoherently. She pulled at the belt loops on his jeans. “Come on, Peeta. Tell me.”

He turned around, his entire face flushed despite being in the cold fridge. “No one.”

“What do you mean? You’ve only had bad sex?”

He sighed. “No, Katniss. I’ve…I’ve never  _had sex_ ,” he whispered.

“What? Wait…what?” She shook her head, completely sure he was pulling her leg and just trying to seem like a gentleman. “You’re…you’re a virgin? Peeta, you’re 25. How is that possible? I mean…have you seen you?”

He shrugged. “It just hasn’t happened. I know it’s stupid but I’ve been waiting, I guess. I want it to mean something. I want her to mean something.” He opened the beer and took a long drink. “Look, I get that it’s a total turn off. How all the girls I’ve dated haven’t spilled the beans yet, I’ll never know, but I won’t be mad if you want out. It’s only been a month and -”

He was cut off by Katniss throwing herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her lips against his. He somehow was able to set his bottle down and grabbed her waist, deepening the kiss. They pulled away breathlessly. “What was that for?”

She smiled. “I’m not going anywhere. Come on, let’s go before your friends start placing bets on how far we’ve gotten in here.”


	13. Freaky Friday - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> lovemelikesunday asked: bodyswap and/or genderswap for THG, preferable everlark, but I don't really care.
> 
> So this is a small snippet from a story I always wanted to write but never found the time for.

The smell of freshly baking bread filled her nostrils, waking her up slowly. Her stomach grumbled at the scent, wondering if her mother figured out a way to get bread from the bakery this early. It would be a first, but maybe the older woman was finally figuring out that she had to do more than heal other people to fix their relationship. Providing for the family was only step one, but it was a major step one.

To her left, she heard Prim’s snores, louder than they had ever been before, and she made a note to pick up some herbs from the meadow for her allergies. She was starting to sound like a teenage boy. Katniss crawled out of bed, cringing when she heard the loud thump as her feet hit the ground. She always tried to be quiet in the mornings, so as not to wake up Prim, and she glanced over, glad to see the lump was still unmoving.

She, as quietly as possible, made her way through the dark room to the door, kicking the bed frame and a stepping on piles of clothes she didn’t remember leaving on the floor. Once in the hallway, she used the walls to help keep her still tired body upright. She could have sworn she got enough sleep, but she felt completely out of it. Maybe she was getting sick. It was a rarity, but she supposed it could happen. Better to nip it in the bud before it got too bad. She crept down the stairs and was confused when she reached another door. When had her mother put in a second door to the kitchen?

Shaking her head, she turned the knob and stepped into the soft-glow. She closed her eyes and let the smell of fresh bread and sweetened mixture of cinnamon and apples overtake her. Her stomach grumbled louder than ever. A laugh made her jump. That’s not her mother’s laugh. It was a male’s voice. Why was there a man in her house? So early in the morning?

She rubbed her eyes and blinked. This wasn’t her kitchen. This wasn’t her home. That wasn’t her mother in the kitchen, but the baker. Why was she in the bakery this early? And why didn’t the baker seem to take alarm to her presence?

“Morning.”

“Morning,” she answered, reaching for her throat.

“You feeling okay, Peeta? You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”

Peeta? She glanced to her side, catching her reflection in the glass of a photo on the wall. Pale skin. Blonde hair. Blue eyes. Male. Holy crap. She had just been messing around with Prim when they made that wish on the shooting star, but somehow it came true. She was a Merchant. Not just a Merchant, but a boy Merchant. A Mellark. Peeta.

_But does this mean…_


	14. Icicles - Gadge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> LondonRainings asked: Gadge, sharing a bed (or Everlark, if you'd prefer. I'm not picky)  
> Well, lady, you got the honor of my first Gadge drabble

“You are not seriously wearing those to bed, are you?” Madge asked as Gale emerged from the bathroom, ready to sleep after a long day of working at the mines.

He frowned. “What? My boxers? Come on, Madge, I know this pregnancy has made you particularly horny but I’m tired.”

She rolled her eyes, a mannerism he was not happy to see she picked up from his best friend. “Not your boxers, nimrod. Your socks.”

“My socks?” He looked down at the thick black socks on his feet. “What’s wrong with my socks?”

“No one wears socks to bed. It’s weird.”

“But it’s cold.”

“Tough noogies. Take ‘em off or sleep on the couch.”

He groaned, slipping out of his socks and stepping onto the cold wood floor of their bedroom. He knew she had been expelling ridiculous amounts of heat in her third trimester, and normally didn’t mind that they kept their heater low to make her more comfortable. But this request was ridiculous. And his feet were really cold. “Better?”

She smiled at him and pulled the blankets back. “Thank you.” She kissed him as he slid into bed next to her.

He leaned over to shut off the lamp next to the bed and turned over to curl up next to her. He loved sleeping next to her like this, with his hands resting on her swollen belly, feeling his son kick out a steady rhythm.

“Jesus Christ!”

His eyes shot open. “What?” He grumbled, having finally fallen asleep.

“Your feet are like icicles!”

He laughed and rubbed his bare feet over her warm legs, holding her steady as she tried to squirm away. “You said no socks,” he reminded her, laughing lightly in her ear.

“Oh my God,” she giggled, “put your damn socks on, Hawthorne.”

“Whatever you say, Hawthorne,” he answered, kissing her cheek lightly before creeping across the room to retrieve his socks.


	15. Laying Pipe - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For SwishyWillow - Bearded!Peeta pic at the end

Katniss knew most of the seniors were looking forward to May because it meant graduation was coming up. Or because the weather would finally allow them to stay out all night without fear of a midnight chill creeping in. It marked the beginning of bonfire season, lake trips, and day drinking. But for Katniss, May meant the return of the Snow Energy stringing crew. For the past few years, the entire crew had been traveling the country to try to work on completing the trans-Panem pipeline as quickly as possible. The crew only got major holidays off and even those had become rare as the pipeline neared completion.

They always worked the 12th region during the summer months. Katniss didn’t necessarily understand why - the summer heat could get brutal at times - but she wasn’t one to complain. They worked all day and spent every night in town with the locals. Katniss never considered herself a shallow person; she rarely took the time to notice the boys around her because she was too preoccupied with that little thing called “school,” but she had a bit of a thing for the stringing crewmen.

Which is why she was the one who suggested she and her roommates go out tonight. And why she took extra time picking her clothes out, even though she ended up wearing the same jean shorts and short-sleeved button down with brown cowboy boots she originally chose. She rolled her eyes at Johanna’s catcalls and Madge’s quirked eyebrow. She had lived with those girls long enough to know they know exactly what that was.

As they pushed into the crowded bar, full of girls with similar “things” for the pipeliners and boys hoping to take those rejected girls home, Katniss craned her neck, searching for the familiar sight of…well…of any of them. With a disappointed huff, she allowed Johanna to buy the first pitcher of beer and followed her roommate to an open table.

“Snap out of it, Brainless,” Johanna cackled. “They’ll get here when they get here.”

“They’re here,” Katniss breathed, her eyes lighting up and a rare smile crossing her face. The table, along with the rest of the bar, turned to the front door, where a pack of men had just entered. Jeans that slung just a little too low on their hips, shirts that showed off the muscles they had been building throughout the year, and thick beards completed their unofficial uniform. It was the beards that made Katniss rub her thighs together. She pulled the corner of her lower lip into her mouth as she watched them seamless make their way, as a pack, through the crowd to the bar where they easily conversed with the charming bartenders.

She jumped about a mile out of her chair when her phone buzzed in her pocket.

_Where R U?_

She scanned the group of bearded men, furrowing her forehead when she couldn’t find the one texting her.

_Table by the wall. Under the Corona light._

It only took a few minutes before the pack broke up, heading toward different parts of the bar, including right toward Katniss and her roommates. She smirked as the group of four boys easily waved off the other girls who wanted their attention..

“Hey Catnip,” the tall, dark haired one said with a grin. He turned to the others, “Ladies.”

Johanna, who used to fawn all over Gale, was currently distracted by a new addition to their group, a strawberry-blonde who introduced himself as Darius. Katniss had a thing for beards, Johanna had a thing for accents. Katniss was surprised Johanna didn’t jump the Scott as soon as he opened his mouth. Which was just as well, as Madge, who used to get into fights with Johanna over Gale, was now getting all his attention.

Katniss, despite being surrounded by popular, muscular, bearded men, couldn’t help but feel a twinge of disappointment. She refilled her plastic cup and brought it to her lips when she felt calloused fingers wrap around her wrist and direct her arm away. Her eyes followed her armline and she licked her lips as she watched Peeta Mellark take a long drink from her cup, his blue eyes locked onto hers. He finished off her beer and pulled her to her feet in one move. “Dance floor?”

Katniss didn’t dance. But she also didn’t say no to Peeta Mellark. Not when she hadn’t seen him in almost nine months. Not when she knew they’d only have three months together until he left again. Not when he had that glorious beard. She let him lead her out to the dance floor where he almost immediately pulled her close to him, telling her how he missed her and that he thought of her and that he couldn’t wait to get her alone.

Three months didn’t leave time for romantic greetings. She knew how he felt about her, he told her last year before he left. He told her in all his emails to her. Tonight wasn’t the night for romance, they both knew that. Tonight was their reunion, it was about reconnecting. And from the feel of him pressing against her, he was just as interested in…reconnecting…as she was. They didn’t stay at the bar long, enough for a few drinks and a few greetings, but his constant touching of her back and the feel of his beard grazing over the smooth of her neck made her entire body hum in excitement.

* * *

His alarm went off too damn early as far as she was concerned. When he went to roll over, she held onto his arms tighter, not ready to give him up to the pipeline yet. She could feel him smile against her back and it just made her frown harder.

“Katniss,” he whispered, pressing kisses between her shoulder blades.

“No,” she whined, which made him laugh and pull her closer to his chest. She relaxed into him just enough for him to be able to slip out of bed and into a clean pair of boxers from his luggage. She threw a pillow at him which he easily caught and threw back at her.

He tugged on his work clothes and ran his hand through his hair. “I need a haircut.”

“Don’t you dare!” She mumbled from under the pillow he threw back at her. She felt the bed shift as he crawled over to her and removed the pillow and kissed her, letting his chin rub against hers. “Your hair stays exactly as it is. All of it.”

He kissed her again. “Okay.”

“You’ll keep it? You promise?”

“Always.”

 


	16. Packing - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> LondonRainings asked: Everlark packing/moving

“I think that’s the last of the boxes,” Katniss said, finishing off the last of her packing tape. “When did I get so much stuff? I’ve only been here-”

“All your life?” Peeta finished with a grin.

She nodded. “I guess so. Seems weird to be moving everything out of the house,” she said with a sigh. Her family home, the one her mother left to her when she moved to the coast to start over, was really empty for the first time. Prim had gone off to college, then med school, then her residency, and now Katniss was leaving. “But I’m looking forward to a having a roommate again.”

Peeta laughed. “I don’t think a fiance is quite the same as a roommate but I’m glad you’re looking forward to it. My place is too big and empty without you.” He stood up from where he had been sitting on the floor and kissed the top of her head. “I’m gonna do one more sweep of the house. Then we can start loading up.”

Katniss smiled after him. She really was excited about moving in with him. It was a huge step – possibly bigger than actually accepting his marriage proposal. It made it so much more real to have his key in her pocket than the ring around her finger. She was pretty lucky that he stuck with her for so long; he was patient and caring and loving and she was fairly certain she didn’t deserve him. But he seemed to think highly of her and refused to listen to her when she tried to convince him otherwise.

“Katniss?”

She turned her head to where Peeta was calling to her. “Yeah?”

“Um…can you come here?”

She furrowed her forehead but went searching for him anyway. She found him crouched in her closet with a small, opened cardboard box in his lap. She scanned the contents of the box and she thought her stomach was going to fall out of her butt.

“What is this?” He asked, eyes still down on the box.

“Um…”

He looked up and smirked at her. “All this time I thought you were so pure. But you’re actually quite the dirty girl, aren’t you?” He tossed one of the objects at her. “I never thought you’d be into guy on guy porn, Katniss.”

Her face flushed. “It was….I….”

He reached for her hand and pulled her down next to him. “It’s fine,” he said. “It’s normal, I think. Besides, you know about my stash.”

She rolled her eyes. She had accidentally found his pile of dirty magazines in the bathroom once when she was searching for some bandages. She knew guys were into girl on girl, which was part of what made her look into guy on guy stuff.

“Really?” She asked, setting the DVD back in the box.

He shrugged. “Sure.” He leaned in close and kissed her sweetly. “But if you think I’m letting another guy ram his cock up my ass, you’re shit out of luck.”

She smacked the back of his head, making them both laugh. Yes. She definitely was excited about moving in with this man.


	17. Power of Social Lubrication - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ichooseupeetachu asked: Drunk!Peeat drabble (my standard go to! ;) )  
> Warning. This is a little bit of a fluff monster.

“You’re very pretty,” Peeta told the brunette with the long braid who was sitting on the bottom porch step. “Very pretty.”

“And you’re very drunk,” she laughed, sliding over so he could sit. “This your place?”

Peeta shook his head. “Finn’s. I think. Are we still at the same house? I think it was daytime when I got here so I have no idea where I am anymore.”

The girl laughed again, handing him her bottle of water. “Here, drink this. You’ll need it in the morning.”

He narrowed his eyes. “How do I know you didn’t drug this water?”

“If that’s your concern you really need to stop drinking,” she answered. “But if you don’t want it-”

“No, no, no,” he interrupted, reaching for the bottle and chugging it down as quickly as the last beer bong he did. “Thanks. Erm, sorry.” He handed her the empty bottle and back and she cocked an eyebrow at him but said nothing. “So. Um. I’m Peeta.”

“I know who you are,” she answered, picking at the label of her bottle. “Katniss.”

“Everdeen. From biology.” He smiled when she looked at him in shock. “Don’t be so surprised, Katniss Everdeen from biology. I know you well. I’m glad you came. Now I can look at your face instead of your braid.”

“Creepy, Peeta Mellark.”

“Adorable,” he corrected her. “I’m adorable and…” he felt the bile rise in his throat and from the look on Katniss’ face, he wasn’t the only one aware of it. “Oh fuck,” he murmured, turning away from her and leaning over into the bushes and throwing up almost everything he had been drinking that night.

He sat up, his face flushed and head still spinning. Looking over, he saw that Katniss had left and he let out a groan, realizing he screwed up the one shot he had at getting Katniss Everdeen to talk to him. All because he listened to Finnick about the power of social lubrication.

“Hey,” he heard in a soft voice. He was surprised to see her kneeling down beside him with a bottle of Gatorade and a soothing hand on his back. “Here, this will help you hydrate. But if you throw up again, you’ll probably hate the taste of fruit punch for a while.”

“Really?” he asked, taking sips of the drink.

She nodded. “Yeah. That’s why you’ll never see me drinking Lemon Lime.”

“We’ll never be able to drink Gatorade together,” he muttered. It was a lame attempt at a joke, he knew that even in his drunken state. When she laughed quietly, he wondered if maybe he hadn’t been such a disaster. “You’re still very pretty, Katniss Everdeen from biology.”

She smiled at him and kissed his cheek. “You too, Peeta Mellark from biology.”


	18. Sleep - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> coconutmigrations asked: Everlark "Shh, c'mere."  
> Angst tumblr meme

I can’t sleep. Well, that’s a lie. I can sleep, but sleeping leads to dreaming and dreaming leads to reliving the arena. And I’ve relived it more times than I ever should have. I’m a victor, but I’m still in the arena. And I doubt I’ll ever get out.

Gale notices the difference immediately. As immediately as he can when we only see each other once a week. I’m slow, sluggish, out of energy. I don’t shoot anything - not since the time I had that doe lined up and could only see Rue. I couldn’t even pick berries because they all looked like Nightlock which reminded me of the arena. And of Peeta. 

That was the worst. Worse than seeing the dead tributes and the blood and the carnage. It was seeing Peeta everywhere I went. And not being able to confide in him in any of it. And it was all my fault. All because I couldn’t explain it to him, because I couldn’t twist my words to make him understand. It was life or death then. It’s just death now. There is no life anymore. No Peeta.

My mother and sister have given up on trying to get me to sleep. I push away the sleep syrups and the warm teas and the extravagant foods. Instead, I sit in the drawing room, staring out the window at the mostly empty Victor’s Village. One house in particular, of course. The one where my fellow victor, my light, my life, is. The lights are off, it seems like the lights are always off. Does he sleep all the time? He didn’t kill anyone in the Arena so maybe he doesn’t have the same nightmares. Maybe he really is a Victor. A proper Victor. 

I snort. He really is a model citizen, I suppose; charming, good looking, selfless, and well-rested. I’m jealous of him. I miss him. I’m angry with him.

That’s what runs through my head the rest of the night. And the next day. And the day after. And the night I decide to confront him for being able to sleep when I can’t shut my eyes without screaming. His door is unlocked, which isn’t unusual since you have to live in Victor’s Village to gain access to any of the houses at night.

His bed is messy, like the covers have been thrown half-haphazardly off of him if he were in it. It’s empty, but it still feels like him. And as I sit on the edge, I realize it smells like him. The pillows and blankets are so inherently Peeta that I can’t stop myself from covering my face and inhaling deeply. I’m crying, I’m sure, for the first time since we came home.

"Katniss?"

I can’t answer him. Because if I do, he’ll see my weakness and I have no right to be here. So I don’t. And he doesn’t say anything else. Instead, the bed next to me dips and I feel his arms surround me like they did in the cave. The cave where I learned the truth about him without realizing it. It felt like a lifetime ago. 

"Shh," he whispers, pulling me into his chest. I look up at him and even in the dark, I see the tell-tale sign that he hasn’t been sleeping either. His fingers smell like paint and bread and his breath is warm against my shoulder. “Shh, c’mere.”


	19. Come Get Me - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anonymous asked: Everlark - "Please Come Get Me"  
> angst tumblr meme  
> Warning - child abuse

My phone rings under my pillow, vibrating me awake. Groggily, I rub my eyes and stare at the clock on the wall. 3am? Who is calling me at 3am on a Monday night? Yes, it’s summer vacation but really, who is calling me at 3am? Everyone knows I’m grumpy as fuck if you wake me up in the middle of the night and no one here goes out on Monday nights. 

"Hello?" I answer, my voice thick with sleep. "Hello?" I repeat when no one responds. I’m really not in the mood for crank calls right now.

"Please come get me." The voice is muddled and nearly inaudible. In the background, I can hear loud noises and I shoot up. I know those noises, I know that voice and why it’s muddled and quiet. We all told him not to go stay with her over the summer but he assured us that things had changed. Ever since he announced he was moving out for college, she had softened. Apparently, it was just another act. "She’s hurting me." There’s fear there, fear I haven’t heard in his voice since the last time he called me so late.

I swallow the lump in my throat, push the anger down, and bite my tongue to prevent myself from yelling so she can hear me. That will only make things worse. “Don’t move,” I order him. “I’m going to stay on the phone. Don’t you dare hang up.”

He doesn’t. But he also doesn’t talk, leaving me to listen to her shrieking and throwing whatever it is she can find. The walls are thin in his old house and her voice echos. I keep the phone cradled between my ear and shoulder as I swipe my mom’s car keys and race across town, speed traps be damned. I know better than to park near his house, so I park at Madge’s, which is three down and walk the rest of the way. 

It’s been years since I’ve scaled the tree by his window. Years since I’ve slipped inside his room and found him huddled in the back of his closet. I hang up the phone and wrap my bony arms around him, just like I did when we were kids and he didn’t know who else to call, who else could understand.

"Don’t make me stay here," he whimpers into my shoulder. "I never should have come back."

I take him back to my house as soon as it’s quiet.


	20. Nothing to Worry About For Now - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anonymous asked: Everlark "Shit, are you bleeding?!"  
> angst tumblr meme
> 
> TW: miscarriage

Peeta came into the darkened room with a cup of herbal tea and a cheese bun even though Katniss had refused all offers of food that day. He worried that maybe she had started declining again, falling back into the depths of her depression like after her sister died. It felt different this time, though, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on how. So he’d keep bringing her tea and cheese buns and hope she’d eat something this time.

It was hard, sitting in the dark room with her, but the lights hurt her eyes. And she couldn’t get out of bed because she said her stomach hurt too badly and she felt like she may vomit at any minute. The cramping started a few days ago and ever since she became a shell. Her normally olive toned skin was ashen and even her grey eyes were lifeless. 

Sometimes, she would drift into a restless sleep and wake with tear-stained cheeks. But she’d never talk about it when he asked. Instead she turned away from him and curled her legs up into her chest. So he’d sit on the bed and run his hands through her hair, waiting for her to open back up to him. But he never pushed her.

Two days later, her hair had matted into the pillow and she smelled like sweat and tears and something he couldn’t identify. “Katniss,” he whispered. “Katniss, you need to take a shower or a bath or something.”

She mumbled and tried to turn away from him again but he refused. 

"Sweethear - Love, come on. It’s been four days and you smell worse than Haymitch’s geese. Let me take you to the bath."

He started to tuck his arms under her body when she lashed out, flaying her arms and legs at him, screaming like a feral child. He backed away from her, remembering too well the last time she was so distressed, remembering that it set him off into an attack. This time, though, he was too worried to panic. It was like his brain knew something more important was happening to her and overrode it’s instinct. 

He caught her and wrestled her down to the bed, holding her in place until she gave in. He picked her up and carried her into the bathroom, where he started the bath and instructed her to undress and get in the tub. She nodded weakly, still watching him with prey eyes. He closed the bathroom door, more for her privacy than anything else, and headed back into the bedroom to get the tea; since it’d still be warm and she had taken to drinking tea in the bath so he figured it’d be a warm welcome, when he saw it. There on the bed, where she had kicked the blankets away from her. 

He stared at it, willing himself not to go into panic mode once again. Blood was a trigger, he learned. Especially blood he couldn’t identify the source of. The tap of the tub turned off and he heard the quiet sound of Katniss dropping herself into the warm water. 

He knocked on the door before entering and set the mug of tea on the edge of the bath, sneaking a peak at the water below. Sure enough, tinge of red colored the bath. “Katniss?”

She ignored him, keeping her eyes focused on the wall across from him. He looked down at the water, at where the red was coming from and thought he was going to be sick. “Katniss. Are you bleeding? Katniss!” He shouted at her, trying to get her attention to no success. He pulled her out of the tub and wrapped a towel around her. She needed a hospital. He didn’t know what was happening but something in his head associated “bleeding” with “hospital.” 

She woke up in the hospital room to the sound of a beeping heart rate monitor and warm fluids running through her veins thanks to the IV in her arm. “Peeta?” She called out groggily. “Peeta?” Her voice was frantic, searching for the only person who could keep her grounded.

He was at her side, taking her smaller hand in his and she relaxed. “How are you feeling?” He asked, resting the back of his hand on her forehead.

“‘m fine,” she answered. “Tired.”

"I bet. Doctor says you lost a lot of blood."

"What else did the doctor say?"

He turned his eyes from her, unable to look at her face as he debated telling her he knew what she had kept from him for almost two months. And then for four days. He didn’t know how to tell her that he knew they lost their child. The child he didn’t even know he could have had. The child he wanted with her for as long as he knew her.

"Nothing to worry about for now, Love."


	21. Bad Day - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anonymous requested: "Look at me - just breathe, okay?" Everlark  
> Second part requested by LifeIsShiny: "Everlark, finish the last one but with a happy ending" :)
> 
> angst tumblr meme

Peeta had been playing video games with Finnick all afternoon while Katniss and Annie were holed away in in Katniss’ room. “Any clue what’s going on in there?” Peeta asked, speeding past Finnick and throwing a green shell behind him.

"Fuck! Nah. I dunno, Katniss called Annie in a panic this morning and insisted she come over. How was I suppose to know I wouldn’t get any of that time with Annie?" Finnick muttered through gritted teeth, the way he always did when he was concentrating too hard on the game.

Peeta nodded. Finnick had texted him about an hour ago when he had, in his own words “worked out every knot in his mind and was boooored.” He hadn’t opposed to playing video games, even if his mind was on the girls in the other room. Well, one girl in particular. He couldn’t help but wonder what sent the normally well put-together and stoic Katniss into such a tizzy that she’d call Annie instead of him. He was supposed to be her best friend.

"Katniss Everdeen! The curling iron is  **not**  that hot!” Annie’s voice pierced through the door. “Sit your bony ass down and let me finish!”

Peeta and Finnick eyed each other and shrugged. “You girls okay?” Finnick called out.

"We’re fine!" Annie answered in a sing-song voice, despite the struggling noises they could still here. "Almost finished."

About two races later, when Peeta’s wandering brain finally allowed for Finnick to beat him, they heard the door opened and looked up. Finnick whistled and Peeta could feel his jaw physically drop and he stood up in a hurry. There was Katniss, his Katniss, his best friend, dressed to the nines in a tight black dress, heels, curled hair, and…makeup? Katniss Everdeen was wearing makeup? Since when?

"Looking good, Kitty Cat," Finnick said, "but you didn’t have to dress up for us. It’s just me and Peeta."

Katniss rolled her eyes. “It’s not for you two, idiots.”

"Yeah right. What, you got a hot date?"

She glanced at Peeta before dropping her eyes to the floor. “Yeah,” she answered quietly. “Yeah, I do. Problem, Odair?”

Peeta felt his stomach drop. A date. His Katniss had a date. With another guy. A guy who, by the sounds of it, was knocking at the door to pick her up. All because Peeta was too big a chicken to tell her how he felt, to tell her that the drunken kiss they shared last year was more than that and he hadn’t been able to forget it. But she had never dated before, not like this.

It was too late now. He couldn’t say anything to her as she stood in front him, dressed like that for someone else. Someone she was clearly excited to see even if she was twisting a strand of hair around her fingers nervously.

"Do I look okay, Peeta?"

When had they gotten so close? Close enough to smell her perfume - the perfume he gave her for her secret santa last year because it embodied everything about her. She was wearing it for someone else. Someone that wasn’t him. “Yeah,” he said, plastering the best fake smile he could on. “You’re a knockout.”

She smiled and dipped her head. “I’m really nervous. What if he doesn’t like me?”

Peeta tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. “Katniss, look at me. Just breathe, okay? You’ll do great. You won’t trip in those shoes or spill wine on that dress or anything like that. This guy asked you out for a reason.”

"I asked him," she admitted in a quiet breath.

"Even better then," he choked out. "He said yes for a reason. Only…only an idiot would let you go." He kissed her cheek and smiled brightly at her. As brightly as he could given the circumstance. "Go get him because that knocking is driving me crazy."

* * *

 

Katniss made sure to wipe her face before entering the apartment, just in case Finnick was still up. She didn’t need her roommate making fun of her right now. It was the last thing she needed. Taking a deep breath, she unlocked the door and stepped in, not at all surprised to see the tv on and Finnick asleep on the couch. She wondered what the point of giving him his own bedroom was when he slept on the couch more nights than he didn’t.

Normally she’d flick his foot to wake him up and tell him to go to bed or he’d get a neck cramp. But she didn’t much care about his neck tonight. She slipped her shoes off and padded through the living room toward her room.

"Katniss?"

She paused, turning to the couch because that wasn’t Finnick’s voice. “Peeta? Why are you on the couch?”

"Fell asleep," he answered, sitting up and running his hand through his unruly curls. She laughed softly and sat next to him. "Finnick and Annie went out, I think to Annie’s in case you…" he paused. "In case you and your date needed the apartment to yourselves."

Katniss rolled her eyes. “And you decided to stay behind as what? Protection.”

He smirked. “Maybe. Or maybe I was watching one of your terrible movies and I fell asleep.” He laughed when she elbowed him in the ribs, just like she always did when he made fun of her love of documentaries. “Where is the date?”

"Gale," she answered.

"What?"

"The date," she huffed. "His name is Gale."

Peeta raised his eyebrows. “Alright then. Where is Gale?” He over emphasized the name of the man he couldn’t stand even though they hadn’t met.

Katniss sighed. “I don’t know. I haven’t known for a few hours,” she admitted. She leaned against his shoulder as the weight of the disaster of a date came crashing down. She told him how Gale seemed really nice at first but then proceeded to order her dinner for her. When she tried to change the order (since she really wasn’t in the mood for chicken and really wanted the steak that he ordered for himself) he got angry and sullen and completely shut down. “It was horrible, Peeta. And when he did start talking again, all he did was complain.”

Peeta rubbed her shoulder and rested his head against hers. They had sat like this so many times in the past, and it never failed to send shivers down his spine. “That…sucks.”

She snorted. “Really? That sucks? Is that all you have to say?”

"What do you want me to say?" He asked quietly. "Want me to go find him and punch him? Cause I’ll do that unless he’s a big guy. I don’t really want to get my face broken if I don’t have to." When she laughed slightly, he tightened his hug. "I’m sorry, Katniss. You deserve better."

"Meh. I’m not sure that’s the case. I mean, who gets walked out on halfway through the dinner? I’m glad I had enough cash for a cab."

With that, Peeta stood abruptly from the couch, nearly knocking Katniss over in the process. “He did what?” He had never been so angry at someone he didn’t really know at all. But really, who in the hell leaves a woman at a restaurant in the middle of a date. Katniss. His Katniss. “That motherfucker. I don’t even care if he’s bigger than me, I’m going to find him and -“

"Peeta!" Katniss reached out to him. "Stop, Peeta. This night has been bad enough, okay? Don’t make it worse."

He looked out at her outstretched hand. Don’t make it worse. Don’t make it worse. He took her hand in his and pulled her up to his chest. “Okay,” he said, wrapping his hand into her hair and crashing his lips onto hers. When they pulled apart, he ran his thumb over her lips. “Dressed like that you deserved a good night kiss.”


	22. Let Them Eat Cake - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> BohemianRider requested a cake drabble.

It’s the birthday from hell. That’s what Katniss has decided as the kids, allthe kids are running around and screaming at the top of their lungs. The ones that aren’t are crying and snotty and disgusting and she can’t believe she has allowed this to happen under her watch. It’s an excellent question - how did she allow this to happen?

Oh. Right. The blond man in the kitchen with those stupid blue eyes and those ridiculous hands who practically impregnated her twice just by smiling at her. Bastard. He was the one who thought it’d be good for Aisley to have an actual birthday party. Which meant inviting every kid she went to school with. And all of Benji’s friends because heaven forbid he not having anyone to play with. Then Prim came with her twins, Annie with Nicky, and somehow even Gale showed up with three olive-skinned, dark haired boys that looked so much like him and his brothers Katniss still got goosebumps looking at them. 

Seriously. Where did all these kids come from? 

"Peeta. I’m going to lose my mind," she huffed, wiping someone’s (whose?) muddy handprint off her shirt in the kitchen.

"Ahh, no worries, my love," Peeta answered, as the oven timer went off. "You seem to have forgotten your secret weapon."

"Secret weapon?"

"Yes." He pulled a chocolate cake - Aisley’s favorite - out and set it on the stove to cool. "You married the finest baker in Panem. And you know the old saying."

She shook her head but licked her lips. Chocolate cake, particularly Peeta’s recipe, was definitely one of her favorites as well.

He leaned over to kiss her nose. “Let them eat cake!”


	23. Nothing Changes - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> dracoisalooker76 requested: Everlark "What Happened Doesn't Change Anything"
> 
> angst tumblr meme  
> TW: underage

The closet was too cramped for his liking. He should have done it right by her, or at least used an actual bed. But she had pulled him in and told him that she refused to let Snow dictate her sex life. 

"He’ll make more money if he films either of our first times," she said. "I won’t let him."

Peeta nodded, swallowing down the added disappointment. It was just like the train, when she suggested they get married. To appease the Capitol. Not because she wanted to. He pushed that thought down and kissed her, spinning her around and pressing her against the wall. She wore a dress, making it easy for her leg to hook around his hip and him to slip into her without having to get completely naked. They didn’t have much time but he realized he wouldn’t need it.

He was embarrassed when he had to pull out of her so quickly and finish into whatever random piece of cloth he could reach first, but if she noticed, she didn’t say anything. Even in the dark closet, he could see her readjust her dress and smooth down her hair. They stay in the closet for a few minutes, catching their breath and letting any signs of what they just did dissolve.

"Peeta," she said, her voice quiet and needy.

He shook his head as he opened the door. The light exposed her face and his resolve nearly crumbled.  _We could get married. Let’s just get it over with._ "No," he stopped her, his jaw set and eyes surely betraying him. "No, Katniss. What happened doesn’t change anything."


	24. With Me - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anonymous requested: "I just really need to have you here right now" Everlark
> 
> angst tumblr meme

Katniss doesn’t remember how exactly she found the unused Capitol footage from Peeta’s interviews with Caesar but when she does, Finnick breaks her into the control room to watch in peace. She reached for the screen, wishing she could smooth back that piece of hair that is slightly askew. Or mess all of it up so he looks more like himself and less like the Capitol lapdog he’s meant to be. 

She heard the strain in his voice as Caesar led him into answering questions about Katniss. About Katniss and Gale. About the rebellion. About being left behind. About being second best to her. Again. It makes Katniss sick to her stomach as Peeta, as the questions continue, begins to agree with Caesar’s line of questioning. 

"I was never her first choice," he muttered, shattering Katniss’ fragile heart. Sure, she never imagined marrying anyone, especially not the pale skinned baker boy from town. But that never meant he wasn’t her first choice. She loved him, loved him in a way she hadn’t loved anyone else. It took so much to get to that point, for her to recognize those unknown feelings.

She fought them too hard. She pushed him away too many times because she was scared and angry and confused. But when she thought back to it, she never needed Gale like she needed Peeta. She never wanted Gale like she wanted Peeta. Surely he knew that, surely she had convinced him of her true feelings in the arena. When she thought he died and she considered flinging herself into the force field because the thought of being without him was too great.

 _Please, Peeta_ , she begged in her mind.  _Please don’t doubt me_.

"If you could say one thing to Miss Everdeen now, Peeta, what would it be?"

Katniss nearly turned off the reel, unwilling to hear his words to her, knowing they would end her. Just like Snow wanted. She reached for the control when she heard it - the hiccup in his voice. He was struggling to find the words and something about it caught her attention.

"I…I hate you, Katniss Everdeen, for what you did." His face contorts and in a quiet voice, he said, "I just really need you here right now. With me."

The screen goes to static and then black. The cameras must have shut off for his rebellious words. For not spewing venom at her but calling for her. Needing her. Missing her. Wanting her.

"I do, too," she answered, letting the tears fall. "I do, too."


	25. I've Had Enough! Shut it Down! - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> YourPeetaIsShowing requested a Hell's Kitchen drabble. :)

Thursday nights are tense as all the Everdeen women, Peeta, and his two brothers settle down to watch each week’s episode of Hell’s Kitchen. Five and a half months ago, Peeta had been accepted to be a contestant on the cooking reality show. At the time, the producers told the not-classically-trained baker that he’d be there for appearances, as approximately half of the contestants were. He’d be compensated for his time, but he shouldn’t expect to miss toomuch work.

 

He’s in the bottom two the first week. When asked by Gordon Ramsay why he should stay when he has no real training and couldn’t even cook risotto with any consistency, he stands his ground effectively enough to stay on. The “alpha cooks” on blue team are ruthless toward him, especially because he gets along with the women and the “beta” men on his team. Week after week, they try to scapegoat him to the point where he earns the award of “most times in the bottom” and he runs out of original reasons to stay. Yet he stays.

Katniss remembers the first time Ramsay kicks Peeta out of the kitchen and calls him a “fucking donkey.” Peeta has to hold her back when she tries to fling herself at the tv in a fit of rage. Her Peeta is not a “fucking donkey.” He laughs every week when she gets nervous or flips out or yells at “Gordon fucking Ramsay” and gently reminds her that she knows what happens on his run and she’s not allowed to say anything about it. Part of the contract she never realized she’d have to sign as Peeta’s special guest.

“Fine,” she mumbles. “But I don’t have to like it.”

Her chest fills with pride when Peeta gets his black jacket. During service, Peeta completely takes over the brigade and leads them to the quickest completed dinner service in the history of Hell’s Kitchen. He’s awarded the black jacket half-way through the service; another first for the show. Gordon tells him he hasnever seen such improvement from such an inexperienced chef. “I’m proud of you, young man,” he says, handing Peeta the black jacket.

The camera catches the glisten in his eye as Peeta slips his red jacket - having been traded a few weeks back - off and his black jacket on. His teammates cheer him on when he reenters the kitchen and regains control of them. Katniss leans over to kiss him when the episode ends. “I’m proud of you, too.”

She has to lie to her mom and sister about working extra shifts when the show contacts her about flying out for an episode because she can’t tell them the real reason without violating the contract. She’s in the back room with the other chef’s parents and loved ones, knowing that she’s the only person invited to come see Peeta. It’s better that way because who knows what his mother would do if she was there. Probably overtake Gordon Ramsay for the most vile person on television. Only hers won’t be an act because Chef ends up being hilarious rather than mean most of the time.

A young producer opens the door for her and she hears the infamous Scottish chef introduce her. She’s told to remain calm, to walk over to Peeta so the cameras can get a good shot of them both. But as soon as she sees him she can’t help but run toward him and leap into his arms, wrapping her legs around his hips. It’s been a month since they’ve seen each other, the longest in their relationship since they were sixteen, and it was unbearable. So screw what the producers told her.

“So this is the infamous Katniss?” Gordon asks, forcing them apart. She ducks her head into his side because at the time, she had no idea that Peeta had referenced her more times than she thought possible as his incentive to keep going. Even watching it back on television, Peeta and Katniss both turn a slight shade of pink at the comment.

They eat breakfast together, Peeta being forced to eat with his left hand since Katniss refuses to let go of his right. He jokes that he’s used to it and had all but become ambidextrous at this point. After breakfast, the family members are told to say goodbye and are sequestered into a back room, being told that after the challenge, one of the “families” will get to spend time with the winning chef.

Katniss pretends to be surprised when they call her name. But she knows her Peeta can do anything he puts his mind to.

“Peeta, the prize for winning is a day of rest and relaxation. I’ve arranged to have you spend a day on the beach while the rest of your teammates clean the dorms.”

“Thank you, Chef,” Peeta answers.

“But, of course, you won’t be going alone. You’ll be going with…your…girlfriend.” On cue, Katniss is once again led to the open door and comes out, though far more acceptable than the first time. “Now go upstairs, get changed, and meet Katniss back down here for your beach visit.”

There’s a small set-up at the private beach full of what Peeta calls gourmet picnic food. Katniss thinks it all looks a little small to be a lunch, but relents that that’s why he’s the chef and she’s the taste tester. They could go surfboarding. Or snorkeling. Or really anything, but instead lay on the beach towel in their bathing suits, catching each other up on things and kissing. Lots of kissing. She’s missed kissing him since he had been gone and she’s pretty sure that if there weren’t cameras on their trip they’d do a lot more than kissing.

Prim questions her tan when she returns home from the “busy work days” but Katniss brushes her off. Now her baby sister turns to her and slaps her arm. “Oh my God! I knew you weren’t working!”

“I got you a present, Prim,” Katniss answers, running upstairs to grab the goat trinket she had been hiding since her trip. Prim had a thing about goats that started in childhood. “I knew you’d be upset at me lying to you.” It seems to do the trick because Prim smiles and accepts the gift with a smile.

The final showdown is between Clove, a chef with the most impressive resume and knife skills, and Peeta. Peeta’s the fan favorite, at least, he should be since Clove was constantly bitching about other contestants and only looking out for herself, but no one ever knew what Gordon was looking for any given year.

“Katniss, I am so nervous!” Prim says, bouncing on the edge of the couch as the opening theme started to play. “You have to tell me what happens!”

By this point in the season, everyone knows that Katniss had once again flown out to LA to support Peeta (even though she once again used the work excuse) and everyone knows she knows what will happen. Peeta, for his part, has been totally tight-lipped, his poker face surprisingly good throughout the show’s run. But Katniss shakes her head and refuses to tell her sister anything about the finale.

Because she wants her to be surprised when Peeta’s door opens at the end. And when he greets her at the bottom of the stairs with a diamond ring. And when she agrees to marry him.

“What?!?” Prim shrieks, jumping off the couch. “But you’re not wearing a ring!”

Peeta pulls Katniss close to him. “It’s been so hard,” he admits, knowing it’s been harder for him not to be able to show off his future bride than it’s been for Katniss to wear the damn thing.

Katniss pulls a chain out from under her shirt, exposing the ring she’s been “wearing” the entire time. She unclasps the chain, slips the ring off it, and gives it to Peeta, who drops to one knee and re-proposes to her in front of her family.

“So,” Peeta’s middle brother asks after everyone congratulates the pair, “you won, right? Does that mean you have to move so you can be his head chef?”

“Funny story,” Peeta answers. “It turns out Chef wants to work with me to turn the bakery into an upscale bistro.”

_“Peeta stepped foot into Hell’s Kitchen as the underdog. But his work ethic, desire, and ability to adapt rocketed him to the top of the class. Despite being up for elimination more times than any other contestant, it was clear to me that Peeta was in a league of his own. I can’t wait to see him live up to his potential. Congratulations, young man, and congratulations to your new fiance.”_


	26. Favor - Peeta x Delly BroTP

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dorsalfinnick requested "Last Time I Ask You for a Favor!" Peeta + Delly   
> (BroTP!)

He hated to do it because he knew it would cost him dearly. But at this point, he had run out of every other options. So he asked Delly for a favor, which she easily agreed to with one condition. “Okay. But you owe me.”

 

And owe her he did. Initially, her request was pretty mundane. She was having a get-together for some people and she just needed him to drop off the invitations to a few of the girls. She couldn’t do it at school, she explained, because she wasn’t inviting everyone but she didn’t want anyone to feel bad for not getting an invite. She was working extra hours at the shoe shop to earn the hours off for the party and wouldn’t be able to drop them off herself.

He should have looked through them before agreeing to do so, but the first few names were safe enough - the Leeg twins at the florist, Madge Undersee, a few other girls Peeta would see around the bakery. It wasn’t until he saw the bottom envelope that he realized his mistake.

"Delly!" He stormed into the shoe shop, waving the invitation in his hand. "Are you serious about this?"

Delly smiled innocently. “I don’t know what you mean, Peeta.”

"You planned this just because I asked you for that favor didn’t you? You’ve never invited her to one of your parties."

She shrugged. “Things change, Peet. Now, remember you told me you’d do me this favor. And I think it’s rude to invite someone at the last minute.” She waved him out of the store which only intensified his frustration.

How in the hell was he supposed to invite Katniss Everdeen to a Merchant party when he could barely talk to her in general? Delly was the only person who knew about his crush on the Seam girl and this was just her latest attempt to force them to interact. “Last time I ask you for a favor,” he muttered, kicking a rock as he made his way back to the bakery.


	27. Secrets and Stars - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Norbetsmom requested: "Can I tell you a secret?" Everlark

"Katniss? What are you doing out here by yourself?" Peeta asked, rounding the corner to find her laying on the driveway, staring up at the stars.

She turned her head to see her friend come sit by her. “It was just a little noisy in there,” she said. “Plus you can actually see the stars out here. No coal dust hazing the sky.” 

Peeta laid down next to her and looked at where she was pointing. “It’s beautiful.” They were at a graduation party at Madge’s summer house, miles away from the coal mines of their home town. “Kind of makes you realize how small you are in the universe.”

"And insignificant."

"Not insignificant," he countered. "Think about it. All of those stars and all of space and we’re here. Looking at them, wondering about them, traveling amongst them. In all of space and time, we are so important."

She turned her head to look at him. In the moonlight, she could see his pale eyelashes standing out against the hint of his blue irises. “You’re so optimistic.”

"Nah," he said, turning to face her, ignoring the gravel that dug into his elbow. "I just figure…I guess it doesn’t do any good to be negative. Bad things are going to happen to everyone, regardless of if we’re good or bad. So why not make it easier and see the silver lining?"

She watched his face as he talked and swore she could see the shadows of all the bruises he had sported throughout his life. She struggled through the loss of her father but at least he loved his kids and never intentionally hurt them. “Maybe.”

He chuckled. “You’re so stubborn, Katniss Everdeen. I’ll tell you a secret - that was what made me…like you.”

"Sure it was." She and Peeta had been friends for a few years now but never anything more.

"Really! I guess stubborn isn’t right. Determined. Driven. Passionate. But yeah. I guess…I mean no one else was ever like you. You were so special in that way and man, the more I got to know you, the more I liked you."

She blushed a little harder with each adjective. She never knew Peeta felt that way about her. She figured he just liked her because he was Peeta and he liked everyone, not because there was anything about HER specifically. “Thanks…I guess.”

They were silent again, watching the stars for a while longer. “Peeta?”

"Yeah?"

"Since you told me a secret, can I tell you a secret?"

"Of course."

She took a deep breath. “I’ve always wondered what your lips felt like.”

When he didn’t respond, she turned to stare at him. He was still facing the stars but his eyes were closed and he had a small smile on his lips. “Yeah,” he breathed. “Me, too.”


	28. Nice Dress - Gadge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anonymous asked: "Are you flirting with me?" Gadge  
> TW: VERY MINOR character death implied

"Nice dress, Undersee."

 Normally Madge would roll her eyes and tell Gale Hawthorne to screw himself, but she just didn’t have it in her today. “Thanks,” she mumbled. “You didn’t have to come, you know.” She knew he and Katniss would be the only two Seam kids there and she repeatedly told them both that SHE didn’t want to be there so they shouldn’t feel like they needed to be either. Stubborn as they were, they showed up anyway. Katniss didn’t say anything to her friend, she just held tightly only Madge’s hand. They had their own form of communication and Madge knew what the other girl was saying. She spent the rest of the evening in a corner with Peeta, not talking, just kind of staring off into the room.

Gale, for his part, gave his regards to Madge’s father but stayed quiet and clung to one of the walls, out of the way. Once Madge was alone, he finally came up to her.

"You know Catnip wouldn’t have missed this. Not after…"

"I’m sorry she’s so uncomfortable," Madge said, playing with the hem of her dress. Well, of her mother’s dress. It was some sort of sick joke that it was the first black dress Madge pulled out of her closet that morning. And she would have changed, but as soon as she recognized it, everything felt too difficult so she just gave in and wore it.

"Eh, she’s got Bread Boy to help her out." Gale slid into the chair next to her. "We all have our coping mechanisms." He pulled the flask out of his pocket and took a drink before handing it to her.

She stared at it for a few seconds before taking it and struggling to swallow some of the liquid down. She coughed a few times and took another drink. “Thanks.”

"You look like her."

Madge nodded sadly. “That’s what Dad always said, too.”

Gale took another sip and let out a whistle. “He was a lucky man.”

"Are you calling my mom hot?" She snorted, swiping the flask from him. Having never drank before, it wasn’t taking much to make her head start to spin. "Because that’s kinda creepy, Hawthorne."

He took the flask back and rolled his eyes. “Jeez Madge, can’t you take a compliment?”

"A compliment? Wait. Are you…Gale Hawthorne, are you flirting with me at my mother’s funeral?"

"Problem?" He asked, keeping his eyes straight ahead like he didn’t care.

She smiled and let out a little giggle. “Nah. It’s nice. No one’s ever really flirted with me before.”

He leaned over near her. “Then you, Madge Undersee, are as oblivious as Katniss.”


	29. Ten-Four - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> coconutmigrations requested: "I think you missed your calling" Everlark

"Everdeen, you in the office?"

Katniss picked up the receiver. “That’s a big Ten-Four, Hawthorne,” she answered with smirk.

"Funny. We got a signal over on route 12. Can you take the Gator over to find out what’s going on? I’ve got these kids and Thom can’t drive because of his arm."

 

Katniss looked over at her desk mate, Thom, who held up his cast. Idiot thought he could ride down a tree that was being removed and ended up shattering part of his forearm. Now he was stuck in the office rather than out being a ranger like Gale. “I’m on it.”

She grabbed the keys off the wall and slipped a hat over her braid. The ticks had been particularly rough this time of year and after Prim picked out three the last time Katniss went out on the paths, she had been insistent that her sister wear a hat. “Later, Thom.”

Katniss liked Route 12. It was the second mose dense trail, after 7, but it had a lot of hills that made it slightly more tricky, and there was a gorgeous view of Panem Lake at the end if you could make it that far. She wished that the signal would be from from the end so she’d get to see the lake, but as luck would have it, she saw the blinking blue light about four miles from the office.

She tried not to roll her eyes when she saw the pale-as-the-moon-boy who came into the office a few hours ago, asking about trails with an equally pale girl. Katniss suggested 1 or 2, since those were the least strenuous, though less beautiful, trails, but the boy was insistent that they could handle something more. He was certainly dressed the part, at least he was dressed how amateur hikers THOUGHT they should be. The girl with him was wearing short shorts and a tank top that accentuated her curves and Katniss and Thom made bets on how red she’d be when they got back.

"You’re an idiot, Peeta," the curvy girl chastised. "I told you to stop playing around."

"Thanks, Dell," the boy answered, rolling his eyes. "And I wasn’t playing around. I was trying to get a picture of that bird I saw."

"And then you fell and messed up your leg. Worth it?"

Katniss cleared her throat and walked up behind the feuding couple. “Um, I saw the signal. You guys need help?”

The boy turned his head to see her and smiled brightly. “Yeah. I seem to have fallen and-“

"And messed up his leg," the girl finished. "Because my cousin is an idiot."

The boy shrugged, but continued to smile, watching Katniss as she circled around him. She thought she was going to throw up when she saw the swelling and bruised coloring around his ankle. “That bad, huh?”

She glanced up at him, “What? Oh, no, no it’s not…”

"You’re a terrible liar," he said. "You’re green right now and it’s not even your leg."

Katniss gulped. She had a basic first aid kit and was certified but she had never actually done anything in the field. “I…uh…no I…I think we just need to get you on the Gator and back to the office. We’ve got a paramedic there that can help. Um…can you stand?”

Peeta tried to lift himself off the ground but as soon as he put weight on his foot, he grimaced and started to collapse back down. Katniss put her arms around his chest to stead him even though he was stockier than she was. He gave a pained chuckle. “Thanks.”

"No…no problem," she answered, trying to ignore the way he smelled. Even with a layer of sweat, she picked up hints of fresh baked bread and herbs. Normally, she thought boys smelled gross and was always making comments to Gale and Thom about showering before they dropped her off at home, but she kind of liked the way THIS boy smelled.

"Um, so, you wanted to get him on the…the thing?" Delly asked, cutting through their little moment.

Katniss shook her head and cleared her mind. “Yes. Yes, we should be able to get him on the back so his leg can stay straight. You can sit in the front with me.”

They situated Peeta onto the back and Katniss was surprisingly relieved Delly was with him. Despite being dressed inappropriately for such a hike, she was stronger than she looked. Once everyone was loaded, Katniss handed them all waters and started the Gator. “I have to go up about a mile to a good turn around spot,” she explained, driving along the trail.

"See, Del? We’re still getting to see nature."

Delly swung her hand back to smack her cousin’s shoulder. The way they acted reminded Katniss of her interactions with her own sister, with Peeta clearly being more like Prim than Katniss. It took a little longer to get back to the office because of the extra weight, but Thom was out as soon as they pulled up to help get Peeta inside. “I called the on-call EMT,” Thom said, “but you may still want to wrap and elevate that for him, Katniss.”

She nodded and went into the back room to get the ice packs and long bandages. She sat on the floor by his ankle and raised it into his lap. She slipped his shoe off and placed the ice pack on the most swollen part of his ankle. “Sorry,” she said when he hissed.

"No, don’t be, I deserve this." He laughed at her face. "Delly was right, I was being an idiot just to get to get a picture of this bird. I got it though!" He pulled his phone out of his pocket and scrolled through his pictures. "I’ve never seen a bird like this before. And, I could swear, it was mimicking us when we were talking. Not…not talking back but the rhythm of our voices. It was crazy."

He showed her the picture and she smiled. “It’s a mockingjay, a hybrid that only lives on the reserve.” She pulled the ice pack off and started to unwind the bandage. “It does mimic human voices. If you sing to it, it sings back to you. Only bird in the world that does it. That’s not the best picture of it, though.”

"Yeah? Why not?"

"You didn’t get the markings on it’s wings."

"The white ones? I’ve got the image," he tapped the side of his head, "right up here. I just wanted a better model of the body so I could paint it correctly."

"You’re a painter?"

Peeta laughed. “I’m in school right now, but I love painting. My mom would flip shit if I actually majored in it like I want to. What about you?”

"What about me? Is this too tight?" She asked, indicating the cloth around his foot.

"It’s fine," he smiled at her. "I mean, what’s your major in school?"

"Oh," she brushed off, clipping the bandage to hold it. "I’m not in school."

"No way, I figured you were going to be a nurse or a doctor or something."

Katniss scoffed. “Wrong sister. No, I’m not really all that good at…healing things. You want something to eat?”

"Sure," he answered, lifting his leg with his hands so it rested on the chair next to him. He accepted the dried fruit she gave him. "But I think you’ve missed your calling, Dr. Katniss."

She rolled her eyes but still smiled. “Shut up and eat your pears.”


	30. Mess - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> LondonRainings requested: Everlark "That is one hell of a mess"

It started out innocently enough. The snow in District 12 was finally white and sticky and, as Peeta said, “perfect for a snowman.” So he and Katniss bundled up to go try and build a snowman outside their newly shared home in Victor’s Village. It was the first time Katniss had ventured outside all winter, but Peeta’s enthusiasm was almost overwhelming. He looked just like a little kid when he saw it, an innocent child who never knew the horrors of the Arena or war or hijacking. As much as she wanted to say no, she couldn’t. She couldn’t deny Peeta this day of peace for his brain.

 

It started out innocently enough. Peeta was showing her how to roll the snow around to make the perfect base, the way his brothers showed him. It was the first time he mentioned his brothers without missing a beat and she made sure to give him a kiss on the cheek when he was finished. He lifted the massive rounds of snow to stack them, then began taking off his winter gear to dress the creature appropriately. In hindsight, he should have known better than to keep his eyes off Katniss for any length of time.

"There, all finished," he proclaimed, wrapping his blue and green scarf around the neck. "Quite fashionable if I do say so myself. Don’t you think, Katniss? Katniss?" He was always worried when she wasn’t around and he started stomping back over toward the house, hoping she had just gotten too cold or something and hadn’t really run off.

The first snowball came out of nowhere and smacked him right in the shoulder. The second was closer to his face. It was her light laughter that gave away her hiding spot - a mound of snow she built up to be a barrier just a few feet from the snowman.

"Oh Miss Everdeen," he chided, clicking his tongue and forming a snowball of his own in his bare hands. "You made a major tactical mistake." He got hit in the face with one more snowball before he could throw his but he invaded her snow fort and the two began just kicking snow at each other. They collapsed onto the ground, chests pounding from the exertion and laughter.

"Peeta?" She asked quietly, resting her head on his shoulder. "Can we have some hot chocolate?"

He leaned over and kissed one of the scars on her temple. “That sounds like an excellent plan.”

They shed their winter clothes as soon as they got back inside. Katniss started a fire and Peeta set out all the ingredients for hot chocolate and cheese buns. “Can I help with anything?” Katniss had a throw blanket wrapped around her and was sitting on one of the stools next to the counter.

"Just sit there and be beautiful," he answered with an exaggerated wink that made her flush.

They were quiet while Peeta started the hot chocolate. Katniss still wasn’t much of a talker, but usually when he would cook, she would make little comments about some memory of food or event or something. His father always used to say, “a quiet kitchen was a dangerous kitchen,” and Peeta finally understood what that meant. There was a tugging in his stomach that SOMETHING was off when almost fifteen minutes had gone by and he hadn’t heard so much as a peep from her.

As soon as he looked her way, he got a blast of flour right in his face. “I couldn’t help it,” she said, a smirk proudly on her face.

"Twice. That’s twice now, Katniss Everdeen." He turned back to the chocolate mixture, dipped his stir spoon in and flicked it at her. She gave a little scream and hopped off the stool, running to where the eggs were sitting on the counter. "Don’t you dare," he warned when she held one in her hand and walked over to him.

"Oh, I dare." And with that, she cracked a raw egg over his head, yolk and whites dripping down his face.

They ended up laying there on the messy kitchen floor - egg shells and empty bags of flour and sugar surrounding them. They were both caked in food but neither seemed at all offended by the sight. They both laughed and played like teenagers, damning the consequences for once in their lives. They didn’t hear the front door open and didn’t know anyone had even come into their home until Haymitch Abernathy cleared his throat and kicked at Peeta’s good leg.

"You kids forget you invited me over for dinner?" They at least had the decency to look embarrassed. Haymitch snorted. "That is one hell of a mess."

Katniss linked her fingers with Peeta’s. “But it was worth it, huh?”


	31. Taste Tester - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Optimus-Pam requested "Can you repeat that?" Everlark

The butterflies in Katniss’ stomach had morphed into full-blown birds and she felt like she couldn’t breath. She could feel everyone staring at her, waiting on her, but she couldn’t force the words out.

 

"I’m an idiot. I’m so sorry, Katniss. I didn’t mean for it to come out that way, I swear…"

Katniss put her hand up to shush him. Her mind was spinning and she needed to gain some sort of control back on the situation. She was on her dinner break from the general store and Peeta surprised her by coming by to take her to dinner. They were at Sae’s Greasy Spoon Bar and Grille, since it would be quick and easy - a welcomed break from Katniss’ stressful shift.

They were talking about the bakery; Peeta was blabbering on about the new recepies he wanted to try and she had just been trying to keep up. She loved when he got excited about things but when he did, he tended to talk about a million words per minute and he ended up having to re-explain everything to her. Which is why she was so caught off guard and was here, struggling to figure out what she was supposed to say. Which was ridiculous because she KNEW what to say, she just wasn’t able to say it right away. Peeta tended to do that, drop some little bomb on her when she was last expecting it.

"Peeta," she croaked, taking a deep breath. He still looked concerned and guilty and like he had kicked a puppy. "Peeta, can you…can you repeat that?"

"Really?" He asked, his eyes brightening. "You…you’re sure?"

"Yes. Ask me again. Please."

He dropped to his knees, his eyes glassy. “Katniss Everdeen. Would you like to be my official taste tester?”

She laughed and smacked his shoulder. “Peeta! I’m serious!”

"Okay, okay." He held both of her hands in his. "Will you marry me?"


	32. Danny or Sandy - Everdeen sisters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anonymous requested: Katniss & Prim just being sisters "I've got one word for you. Sing-along!"

"Happy birthday, dear Primmy. Happy birthday to you!" Katniss made sure to hold onto the last note as long as possible, rising a few octaves up like Michael Scott from the office. She held up her glass and clinked it against the rest of the groups’.

 Prim giggled and took down the rest of her drink in one swallow. “Whew! Thanks, Kitty Kat!” Her normally porcelain skin was flushed and her blue eyes looked even brighter with their bloodshot background.

"You’re only allowed to call me that because it’s your birthday," Katniss warned with a wide smile. "Now, drink up. We’ve got one more stop tonight."

The final round of drinks were served to the group of mostly 21 year olds as Katniss looked on fondly. Her 21st birthday was nothing special, but she knew Prim would enjoy an old-fashioned night out with her friends. It took months of planning and saving, but she was determined to give Prim the best birthday so far. Her last surprise was the hardest to keep from her sister, but she knew it would be the icing on the (birthday) cake.

The gaggle of girls giggled the entire walk from the bar to the local dollar movie theater, with Katniss being the only one who was paying attention. “Why did we stop?” Prim asked, grabbing onto Katniss’ arm. “Where are we?”

"Look up," Katniss instructed.

Prim’s smile threatened to break her face. “Oh. My. God. Katniss!! I LOVE Grease!”

They shuffled into the theater where a row in the back had been reserved for them. As the lights dimmed, Katniss leaned over to her sister who was bouncing in her seat like a little kid. “I’ve got one word for you - sing-a-long.”

"You’re the absolute best sister in the world," Prim said. "You wanna be Danny or Sandy?"


	33. Reunion - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anonymous requested: Everlark. "It's never too late."

Katniss almost didn’t go to her ten year reunion, having thrown the invitation in the trash as soon as she got it. Prim, the little brat, must have seen it and fished it out because the next day, it was stuck to the refrigerator with a post-it saying “I already RSVP’d. You’re going.”

 

High school wasn’t the most pleasant experience for the Everdeen girls, especially Katniss. Their father died right before Katniss’ freshman year and the consequences followed her. Gone was the outgoing girl from middle school, replaced by a quiet, scowling girl with torn clothes and no money for lunch. The teasing was merciless and by the start of her sophomore year, anyone who was unlucky enough to get paired up with her on class projects was shunned by their friends until the project was over. Every single day was a struggle and her favorite part was when she finally walked across the stage and out of D12 High School for the last time as a student. She moved away when she got a job offer a few districts over. After Prim graduated, she and her mother followed Katniss and none had been back since.

Needless to say, Katniss was not excited to go back. She had no desire to see any of her former classmates and was sure they didn’t care if she went either. Stupid Prim and her forcing Katniss to be social. “It’s a time-honored tradition,” she said. “Like prom, which you didn’t go to.”

It didn’t matter how much she argued. Because there she was, sitting at the bar of of the reception hall, with a ‘hi, my name is’ sticker, nursing her second cocktail. With the exception of people just stopping by to get a drink, no one stayed around or talked much to her, which was just fine.

"Guinness, please."

Katniss’ ears perked up at the voice next to her that she so easily recognized; class president, homecoming king, random greetings to anyone and everyone in the hallways.

"Fancy seeing you here, Katniss Everdeen. I have to admit I was surprised when Delly got your RSVP."

She turned her head and came face to face with the blond haired, blue-eyed ‘All American’ boy she went to high school with. He looked the same, the only sign of aging were a few shallow winkles near his eyes and slightly less curly hair. “You can thank my sister for that.”

He chuckled. “I always did like Primrose.” He took a drink of his beer, his eyes flitting between her and the drink. “So no Gale Hawthorne with you?”

She almost spit out her drink at the comment. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, “Uh, no. I haven’t talked to him for…” she trailed off, not being able to remember how long it had been since she talked to her childhood friend. He and his family moved halfway across the country after he graduated, two years before she did, and they chatted every so often but eventually, he stopped writing back and she stopped trying.

Peeta’s eyebrows shot up into his hairline. “Really? Everyone figured you two would end up getting hitched.”

"Yeah, right," she scoffed. "Like who?"

"Me, for starters," he answered. "Even after he graduated, I thought you were still together. That’s why I never asked you out."

This time, Katniss DID spit her drink out onto the bar. “What? Look, if this is some kind of a joke, Mellark, I’m not in the mood.” She picked up her drink and was about to leave when his hand shot out to stop her.

"I’m not joking, Katniss."

She glared at him. “I don’t need your little pity comments, either. I’m aware of my status here and if you think you’re just making me feel better about ignoring me or making me feel like shit 10 years ago, you can save your breath.”

His grip loosened and he turned back to his drink. “You had no idea, did you?”

"No idea about what?"

He shook his head. “Hell, I thought everyone knew. Delly told me I wasn’t very good at keeping my crush a secret.” He let out a small chuckle when Katniss looked confused. “Katniss, I’ve had a thing for you since like, elementary school. I was always just too intimidated to say anything. When I couldn’t work up the nerve to ask you to prom, I figured I’d see you there and ask for a dance. But you didn’t show up and then you moved away and…” he sighed. “Delly thought I was being creepy by leaving the food in your locker whenever I could swipe some. I just saw how thin you had gotten and I was worried. I knew you wouldn’t just take it but I had to do something.”

"That was you? How did…wait. How did you get into my locker?"

Peeta blushed. “Madge told me the combination.”

Madge Undersee was the closest Katniss had to a friend. They were locker partners, even though Madge never used the locker. She was a friendly enough girl but shy and as quiet as Katniss.

"And then Delly said you’d be here and I figured…"

"You firgured what?" She had slid back into her seat next to him.

He grinned. “I figured I missed my shot in high school but…it’s never too late is it?”

She smirked back. “No, Peeta. I guess not.”


	34. Hands - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anonalece requested: Everlark "I think you missed your calling"

She had been staring at the bakery ledger for what felt like days, trying to make sense of the years of chicken scratch handwriting belonging to Peeta and his late father. For being good businessmen, the Mellark men were absolute shit at bookkeeping. Which had never been a problem until Peeta decided he wanted to apply for a small business loan to turn the family bakery into a cafe, doubling the seating space.

Katniss offered to help, it wasn’t like she had any horticulture business coming in during the winter, but she hadn’t been expecting this mess.

"You doing okay in here?" Peeta asked, sticking his head into the office.

She groaned. “Peeta, this is a disaster. I can’t even read half of this stuff anymore. Like this,” she pointed to a number, “what is this?”

He came behind her and leaned down. “It’s a seven.”

She squinted her eyes. “In what universe is THAT a seven?” She rolled her head back and forth, trying to work out the kinks that formed from her hunching over the desk for so long. “I need a break. Oh.”

She felt his hands rest on her shoulders, his thumbs digging into her flesh like he was kneading dough. Gentle, tender, but with a knowing amount of pressure, she let her head lull forward and she let out an embarrassing moan of approval.

"Better?" He asked.

"I think you missed your calling," she answered. When he started to pull his hands away she reached up to grab them. "Oh no, Mister. If I have to try to make sense of this, you’ll just keep on doing that."


	35. Cheer Me Up - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anonalece requested: Everlark "Stop trying to cheer me up!"

Katniss came storming into the apartment with a huff, slamming the door behind her.

"Oh, hey," Peeta said, sticking his head out of the kitchen, "you’re home."

"No I’m not!" She called from the spare bedroom she used to sleep in before they started dating. "I’ve got a huge psychopharm test that I need to study for and I’m not here for a few hours."

 

Peeta was proud of Katniss for taking the plunge and applying (and getting into) pharmacy school. It was the perfect way for her to use her knowledge of plants and honor her sister’s memory. But actual medicine was different than the home made elixirs she grew up with in her tiny town and she was struggling to master the technical aspects of things. He was supposed to be working on his knife cuts or something right now but figured if she was gonna hole herself up in the office, he could at least make her some cheese buns to help her out.

He could hear her muttering to herself through the door. “Katniss? I made you a snack.”

"I’m not here," she answered.

"They’re cheese buns," he tried again, smiling when he heard her get up and unlock the office door.

"Thanks," she mumbled, starting to close the door behind her. "Peeta, what are you doing?" She asked as he slid his foot in to prevent her from locking him out again.

"You’re having a bad day. I’m here to help."

Katniss scowled at him. “I’m not having a bad day, I’m just trying to study.”

He gave her a look that clearly showed he didn’t believe her. “Katniss, I’ve known you for a long time. I know your study habits and I know when you’re having a bad day. What happened?”

Her face softened a little, but she held firm that nothing happened. “I fucked up an ice cream machine today,” he mentioned, leaning against the door frame. “One of the big, expensive ones.”

She looked up from her textbook. “What?”

"I broke an ice cream machine in class. We were having  dessert contest and I dropped a spoon into the machine."

"Way to go," she muttered.

He moved over to sit on the edge of the desk. “But the instructor loved my apple tart. You know, the one with the goat cheese?”

"Mmhmm."

"At least nothing caught on fire this time…like the pot of water meant to cook them…"

"Stop, Peeta."

"Stop what?" He asked innocently. "I’m just telling you about my day."

"You’re trying to cheer me up."

"Am I?"

She finally looked up into his eyes. “Stop trying to cheer me up.”

He put his hands up in defeat and pushed off the desk. “Whatever you like. But then you won’t know what our practice dish for tonight is.” He kissed her cheek and walked back out to the kitchen to resume his mis en place. “Three… Two… One.”

Sure enough, the office door opened and Katniss slowly walked over to him,  wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her head against his back. “Thank you for trying to cheer me up.”


	36. Hot Buns - Finnick x Johanna BroTP

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> dorsalfinnick requested: "Can we pretend I didn't just say that?" Johanna x Finnick

Finnick stared at Johanna in complete disbelief. She held her ground and stared back at him, refusing to acknowledge what just happened. And Johanna Mason knew she could out-stare Finnick.

 "You are not getting out of this, Mason," he taunted. "You seem to be forgetting that our star-crossed lovers will be stopping in District Four and you KNOW how I get when I’ve had a few too many."

"They’ll be in Seven before Four, Odair."

"And what would you say?  _'PS Don't believe the tragically beautiful Finnick Odair when he tells you-'_ " He was cut off by a well placed pillow Johanna just chucked at him.

"Shut up, Finnick,” she hissed. “Seriously. After all the secrets I’ve held for you, can we pretend I didn’t just say that?” Finnick was the only person in the Capitol she trusted but at this point, she was wondering if even that was a good idea.

Finnick grinned. “Deal. But don’t think it’s the last time I’ll make a reference to that baker boy’s ‘hot buns’ around you.”


	37. Stop - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anonymous requested: Everlark "Do you ever think we should just stop doing this?"  
> Warning: implied child abuse

It doesn’t matter how hard he tries to avoid my gaze during first period, the bruise around his left eye is unmistakable. I’m furious and he knows it because the first time he chances a look at me, I’m staring daggers into him. I know it’s not his fault but I’ve tried to warn him time and time again and he always tells me that it’s never that big of a deal. He acts like I’ve never noticed his bruises or welts or that time he had a noticeable limp for two weeks.

And they say I’m the stubborn one. 

He successfully avoids me all day, which isn’t too different from how we normally spend our time at school but I am acutely aware that his eyes aren’t on me nearly as often as they usually are. But as soon as the last bell rings, I rush outside to instruct Prim to walk home with Rory, and slip back into the building toward the gym. Peeta has wrestling practice today and bruise or no bruise, I know he won’t risk missing practice. An absence in a school-sponsored activity without a doctor’s note was a sure way to get a visit from the truancy office.

I grab his arm when he walks past and pull him into the unused janitor closet.

“What the-Katniss?” He’s confused and is flailing around in the dark, enclosed space, trying to get a sense of where he’s at. “What…what are you doing?”

“What are you doing, Peeta?” I ask, reaching up for the chain that turns the light on. After our eyes adjust, I reach up and run my fingers over his bruise, which has spread further down his cheek. He winces and I quirk an eyebrow to prove my point. “Is this because we were out late last night?”

“It’s because I forgot to finish washing all the baking pans before we went out. You know she doesn’t care when I get in as long as I don’t wake her up,” he mumbles, turning his face from me. “Although I’m sure if she knew I was out with you it’d have been worse.”

It doesn’t matter that he tries to laugh this off, we both know it’s true. Too true. “Peeta,” I say softly, threading my arms under his and around his waist. His wrap around my back and pull my close, resting his chin on the top of my head. “Do you ever think we should stop doing this?”

I feel his breath hitch at my words. “What…what are you…saying?”

“I mean, is it worth it? What’s happening to you? Peeta, I care about you and I hate that you’re getting hurt because of me. Plus-”

“Plus what?” His breathing is shallow and his voice is strained. “Plus what, Katniss?”

He tries to pull away but I refuse to release my grip. I need him with me if I’m going to get through this. He’s my rock and as selfish as it sounds, I don’t care. My own breathing is shaky as I form the words. “We have to hide what we’re doing. We never get to be together in public and I know that’s what you want but we both know it can never happen because of where you’re from and where I’m from and I just…I hate it, Peeta, okay? I hate it. I hate it for you and I hate it for me and I don’t know anymore.”

I expect him to try to pull away but instead he crushed me against his chest. “I hate it too, Katniss. I hate it so much. But I’d go through hell and back for you, I need you to know that. I’m in this until you decide to call it quits, no matter what it takes.”

I nod against him. “Okay. I’ll allow it.”

Now when he pulls away, I see a teary smile on his face. “Yeah?” He leans down and kisses me, the way he always does when we’re sitting in the meadow late at night or hiding behind the school early in the morning. It’s the kiss that makes me weak in the knees but tells me I can do anything as long as I have him.

“Just…be careful,” I say, wiping my eyes with the back of my hand. “Purple doesn’t exactly suit you.”

 


	38. But Things Change - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sponsormusings requested: Everlark "You embarrassed me tonight."

The car ride home from Delly’s wedding was the tensest it had ever been. Peeta kept trying to reach over for Katniss’ hand but she kept pulling it away whenever their fingers touched. He tried to glance over at her, but she was staring hard out the window, completely ignoring him. He had the patience of a saint but even he was starting to lose it with her attitude. So when they got near their house, he turned the opposite way and pulled into a nearby parking lot.

“What are you doing?” She asked, the first words she had spoken to him since they started homeward. But still her eyes were occupied elsewhere.

He turned the car off and turned toward her, waiting for her to break and face him. She was stubborn, she was sure to remind him of such in her wedding vows, but he was patient. He harbored a ten year crush on her before she finally figured it out; waiting on her was something he was well accustomed to.

 “Seriously,” she said with a sigh. “I just want to go home.”

“We need to talk.”

Peeta could see her scowl in the reflection of the window but knew that meant she’d be giving in soon. Sure enough, she turned toward him, still scowling with a cocked eyebrow. “Then talk.”

“Oh no,” he chuckled, though not at all in the mood to laugh. “You’re the one with a stick up your ass.”

“You’re the one that wanted to talk,” she shot back.

“Katniss,” he groaned, running his hand through his hair. “You’ll either tell me now or you’ll tell me later but either way you’ll tell me. So save us boththe trouble and stress and just tell me what the fuck I did!”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “You embarrassed me tonight.”

“Embarrassed you?” He racked his brain, trying to remember exactly what he had done that would have caused her to completely shut him out. Was it when he danced with Delly? But he had only done that because they were best friends and Katniss said her feet were hurting. And he had brought her food all night even without her asking which had never gotten him in trouble before. She had an appetite but always thought people would judge her if she got three servings of cake on her own. And there was the awkward drunk dancing with the kids from the neighborhood that they all grew up with. But Katniss had always made fun of Peeta’s two left feet, always laughing at him whenever he attempted to show his skills on the dance floor. She hardly ever even snapped at him anymore when he stepped on her feet, which he had been consciously trying to avoid doing. Otherwise, he had been sitting at the table with her. “How the hell did I embarrass you?”

She huffed. “When Thom came over and joked about Delly not being allowed to drink the champagne at her own wedding.”

He furrowed his eyebrows. He remembered the conversation because it was the first time anyone confirmed that the newlyweds would be expecting their first kid less than nine months after their wedding day. He tried to think back to what he said in response, having always been careful when the topic of babies came up around Katniss. It was the one sore spot in their relationship – the main reason it too them so long to finally tie the knot. She was adamant about not wanting kids and he had come to accept that about her. He loved her no matter what. “I said…”

“You told him he was the luckiest guy in the room, Peeta. You told him that you always imagined Delly having a full brood and that you hoped her kids and yours would be able to have the same bond that you two did.”

Peeta shook his head. “I did always hope that,” he said quietly. “But things changed…”

“But things changed,” she repeated. “That’s what you said. And for the rest of the night I kept getting these looks from Thom and Delly, like they couldn’t believe I was holding you back from your dreams or some shit like that.”

“Katniss,”

“No!” She snapped. “I get it, okay? I know that I’m this big fucking disappointment in your life because I don’t want to have all your little blue-eyed blond-haired chubby babies but I don’t need you reminding everyone about it anytime you can!”

He leaned across the console, taking her face in his hands and holding her still. “Katniss Mellark. Don’t you ever think that you are any kind of disappointment in my life, do you hear me? You’re not. I love you, baby or not.” He leaned in and kissed her, tasting the saltiness of the tears that had slipped from her eyes. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart,” he whispered when he pulled away. “I didn’t realize how much that would upset you.”

“Yeah well, it did. Especially because…because in about seven months you’re going to have one of those giant-head Mellark babies and a very emotional wife.”

He pulled away. “What?” And then it hit him. How many of her champagnes had he drank that night because she hadn’t touched them? And there were those few mornings he woke up to the sound of her vomiting and she just said she hadn’t been feeling well. And her cravings for cheese buns had intensified, something he didn’t even think was possible. He started laughing and rested his head on the steering wheel. “Are you…are you sure?”

She nodded, a look of fear on her face. “I went to the doctor today but I didn’t want to ruin Delly’s wedding by telling you.”

“And I embarrassed you because I said something about it.”

“And now we have to figure out how to tell them something other than what we’ve been telling them for years.”

He leaned over and kissed her again. He turned the car back on and turned around back toward their house. This time, when he reached out for her hand, her fingers easily weaved between his. “You know our kids may end up looking like you – tiny and dark. With your scowl and attitude.”

“Lord help us if that’s the case,” she answered and he noticed how she didn’t balk at the notion of more than one kid in the future. “And here I thought I escaped my mother’s curse.”

 


	39. Vigil - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> arollercoasterthatonlygoesup requested: Everlark "I won't stay long. I just needed to see you."

She hated hospitals; everything about them, from the harsh lighting to the incessant noises to that smell, reminded her of death and made her want to vomit. She hesitated at the elevator, staring at the directory, pretending to be searching for the floor she needed. ICU was floor eleven. She knew that all too well – it’s how old she was the last time she had been there, when her father died.

She hated being there, but her sense were on high alert. The ‘up’ button was right there, but she was too concerned with watching the clients and guests shuffling past here. She was on the lookout for one particular person so she knew it’d be safe to go up. So she waited, with her finger itching to press the button so she could go see him and make sure he was okay.

Katniss wasn’t even supposed to know that he was in the hospital, let alone which hospital. And if  _she_  knew Katniss was here, then they’d all be in a world of trouble. So she kept an eye out, waiting for the ice-blonde, pinched faced woman to leave. Every time the elevator dinged, Katniss glanced at the doors and kept her head down. Her hair was tucked into her cap and her jacket was pulled up past her face – there was no way that vile woman would recognize her.

For a woman so caught up in keeping appearances, Mrs. Mellark never seemed to have a problem yelling at one of her sons in public. Today it worked in Katniss’ favor, since she heard the woman before she saw her, laying into one of Peeta’s brothers for something. Mrs. Mellark all but pulled her son out of the elevator and toward the cafeteria, paying absolutely no attention to those around them. This was Katniss’ chance and she jumped at it.

ICU was the worst floor in the entire hospital. Even the nurses, despite how hard they tried to keep moods up, showed on their faces how difficult their unit was. Which was why Katniss decided to avoid asking them where Peeta was, even if it meant seeing him quicker. Instead, she wandered around the floor, peaking into rooms to try to spot any sign of him.

She found him sleeping in his room, with tubes and electrical wires hooked through his bruised and damaged body. Thankfully it looked as though most of the blood from the accident had been washed off his skin, but he didn’t look good. Not like himself. There was a steady beeping of his heart monitor and a hum from the other machines recording his vitals. His chest rose and fell in a shallow pattern and every so often, his hands would twitch and clench violently.

“Oh, Peeta.”

Finnick told her about the car accident – that he was trying to avoid another car driving on the wrong side of the road and ending up taking the brunt of impact – but she wasn’t expecting this. He told her that Peeta had been touch and go for a few hours but seemed to be stabilizing and she should head over to the District Hospital as soon as she could. He was rarely awake, Finnick said, but the doctors seemed convinced that it was just his body trying to recover and not anything more serious.

She looked over at the chairs along the wall, and considered moving one over to him. But a different instinct took over. So rather than sitting next to his bed, like any normal visitor would, she climbed into his bed and wrapped her limbs around his sleeping body, making sure to avoid all of his tubes and wires.

“I did this to you once.”

She raised her head at his voice and saw the blue of his eyes through half-laden lids. “More than once. How are you?”

“I’ve been better,” he joked.

It made her want to kiss him, even though she knew it was off limits. Hell, just laying in bed with him again was probably off limits but there she was. So she stretched up and kissed the corners of his cut and puffy lips. “Finn called me…”

“I know,” he answered. “You’re still my In Case of Emergency contact.”

She worked it out in her head. They must have called the apartment instead of her cell phone, which would explain why Finnick got the message and passed it along to her. She didn’t know what to think about being his emergency contact still but realized that he was still hers, so it shouldn’t have been so surprising. And now she was glad he hadn’t changed. If he had, she doubted she’d have ever found out what happened to him.

“My mother…” he started. His eyes started to glaze over and it was clear the morphine drip had started to kick in.

She closed her eyes, wishing it had been his father that came to visit him, figuring he’d be the more forgiving of Peeta’s two parents. His mother hated her when they were still together; there’d be no way she’d accept Katniss in his bed at this point. “I know. I saw her and your brother downstairs.”

“She…won’t…”

“I won’t stay long. I just needed to see you. Make sure you’re okay.” It was breaking her heart that she couldn’t stay with him the way he had so often with her. He had been her rock throughout their entire relationship and now when he needed her the most she couldn’t pay him back.

“Come…back? Stay…with…me?”

Katniss leaned her head against his chest again, not ready to leave the only person other than her sister that she ever truly loved just yet. When his hand arched up to touch her lower back, she whispered, “Always, Peeta.”

 


	40. Spring Break - Everlark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anonalece requested: Everlark "How long have you been standing there?"
> 
> NSFW-ish pic at the end

_This is going to be a disaster_ , Peeta thought as he pulled up to Finnick’s beach house. It was their traditional spring break trip, since they were all too poor to go anywhere else but could still soak up the sun in his hometown. It started out as a boy’s trip – just Peeta, Finnick, Cato, Marvel, Thresh, and Gale. They made the pact to enjoy the sun and surf and no girlfriends.

Cato and Gale were the first two to break the pact during their sophomore year but the rest quickly followed. And now, by their senior year, it was no longer a boy’s trip but a spring break destination for anyone who could make the trip down to the beach from school. And this year that included the one girl Peeta didn’t want to see. Katniss Everdeen.

 They weren’t friends, he and Katniss. She made that clear every time they spent time together. She ignored him for the most part unless she was throwing backhanded insults his way with that sharp tongue of hers or kicking his ass in every bar game “just because she could.” He wasn’t sure what he had ever done to her to earn that kind of response and none of their friends seemed to be able to shed light on it either. Even Gale, who knew her the best, would just shrug. “That’s Catnip.”

So when Annie announced cheerfully a week ago that she and Madge hadfinally convinced Katniss to come out and enjoy her last spring break, Peeta seriously debated pulling out just so he could avoid her.

But here he was. And there she was, climbing out of Annie’s SUV and stretching her legs. He liked her legs – they were long and toned led straight up to her perky ass. He liked her ass. She could hate him all she wanted but it didn’t stop him from thinking about her ass.  _Take that, Katniss Everdeen_ , he said to himself, turning his car off. He pulled his duffel out of the passenger seat and set to find his usual room.

They decided to go swimming first, per tradition, but Peeta told Finnick he was tired from the drive so he’d meet them later. In truth, he knew Katniss wouldn’t stay out with the big group for long, so he was hoping he could just avoid her that way. Instead, he pulled his sketchbook and pencil set out of his bag, rolled onto his stomach and flipped to a blank page. He closed his eyes, bringing that image of Katniss getting out of the car and stretching her legs back to the forefront of his mind. He quickly began to sketch the lines and shapes of her body and the fall of her ever-present braid as it dangled between her legs.

Fuck. He was in deep with the only girl in school who wanted nothing to fucking do with him. Even in high school he knew he had a certain charm that could win just about anyone over. Except her. Which was ironic since she was always the only girl he wanted to win over. Fucking world was against him. He finished his drawing, erasing the unnecessary lines and darkening the outline. If he had brought his colored pencils, he’d have colored it in, having long since perfected the grey of her eyes and tone of her olive skin.

The more he stared at the drawing, the more frustrated he got. “Fuck it,” he mumbled, rolling off the bed and shimmied out of his shorts and boxers. Refusing to go back to school red as a lobster this year, he dug through his bag for one of the many bottles of suncreen he knew he packed. He was so intent on finding it, that he almost missed the light gasp from his door. He spun around and, because the world hated him, saw Katniss Everdeen standing there, eyes glued to his exposed cock with wide eyes. He covered himself with his hands as quickly as he could. “H-how long have you been standing there?” He insisted, flustered and confused about what was happening. “Turn around!”

He waited until she had her back to him so he could slip on his swim trunks. “I’m sorry!” She said, embarrassment heavy in her voice. “They sent me up here to get more drinks and I figured I’d come check in on you to make sure you were okay and then…”

“I’m dressed now.” He watched as she turned around, her cheeks the same color pink as the tips of his ears undoubtedly were. “I’m…I’m good…”

She ducked her head. “Yeah…I…I see that. Um. Well, I should probably go…get the drinks…” She turned and practically ran out of his room.

He groaned and fell back onto his bed, knowing full well that the sight of Katniss Everdeen in that black-two piece would be an image he’d never get out of his head now.

 


	41. Denny's is for Winners - Everlarks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ckwmuffins requested: Everlark "Do you ever think we should just stop doing this?"  
> I had to have a little fun with this drabble...

“Peeta!” Katniss hissed, motioning for him to sneak over to where she was hiding behind a large boulder. They were separated from the rest of their team and on high alert for any sign of the enemy. He army crawled over to her, a feet made difficult by the extensive weapons strapped to his body.

“Have you seen anyone else?” He whispered.

Katniss looked over Peeta’s shoulder. “A few. Sacrificed themselves when we got swarmed. I barely got out.” She shook her head. “I’ve heard some rumors that there’s a base about a mile from here. But it’s supposed to be pretty highly guarded.”

 

Peeta nodded. He grabbed a nearby stick and began to draw a crude map of the territory. “So about here?” He pointed to an area representing a row of natural caves. “We could sneak through the forest but with my bum leg.”

“Were you hit?!?” She practically shouted before realizing that could give away their location. She urgently felt around his leg, feeling for any warm liquid on it. She let out a sigh of relief when her hand came up dry.

“Shot at,” he reassured her. “Took a tumble but nothing too bad.”

“Do you ever think we should stop doing this?” She asked. “It’s just so much.”

He just grinned at her. “Stop? Katniss I don’t think this will ever -”

Katniss’ eyes went wide when she heard the faint sound of a leaf crunching. She covered his mouth with her hand and pointed in the opposite direction. One crunching leaf would be just the beginning. She knew they’d have to leave if they wanted to survive and glancing down at Peeta’s map, the woods was the only suitable option. For her. But she knew how to run through woods without making an impact. Peeta would make too much noise, despite his impressive camouflage, and they wouldn’t make it five minutes. They’d need to find an alternative route.

Peeta read her mind and grabbed her arm. “No,” he whispered. “You go, they need you, Katniss. No one needs me.”

“I do!” she whispered back. “I need you.” She leaned over and kissed him, pouring every ounce of emotion and adrenaline into it. “I can’t let you go down like this.”

“You always had to win, Katniss,” he answered, kissing her again. “It was always you.”

“Peeta!”

But it was too late. He was already on his feet, running as quickly as he could to draw as much attention. He was a good shot with the gun he was provided, taking out assassin after assassin with one shot - right to the chest.

She chased after him, free from any potential shot since everyone was focused on him. She made it to the woods safely, scaling a tree to watch his progress. It was the one neither of them saw, the last one in the area, that took him out. He was hidden behind an abandoned vehicle and got Peeta right on the back. She muffled her scream as Peeta fell onto his knees, letting out a sharp pain of agony. In the heat of the moment, she shot the other, taking him out before Peeta hit the ground. She jumped from her place of safety and sprinted into the dangerously open field.

Cradling his head in her hands, she couldn’t stop the tears from streaming down her face. “Peeta! Peeta!” She screamed.

“Katniss,” he mumbled, reaching up for her. “You have to keep going. You have to…”

“No!” She sobbed. “No, I won’t go on without you. I can’t.”

“You have to. That prize…you have to win the prize.” With a dramatic exhale, Peeta dropped his head back. He was done. He peaked an eye open. “Seriously, Katniss,” he said, in a quiet voice. “The prize money is like six month’s worth of rent. You need to go win.”

She smacked his arm. “You loser.” She leaned down and kissed him again. “Meet you at Denny’s?”

“Denny’s is for winners,” he joked. “I’ll have cheese buns waiting for you at the end. Now go.”

 


	42. More Than You Think - Peeta x Haymitch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> dracoisalooker requested: "Is there something you want to tell me?" Peeta x Haymitch canon!compliant, missing scene

“I’ll go clean him up.”

Peeta lifted their unconscious mentor up and draped Haymitch over his shoulder, dragging him through the train compartments to what he suspected, by the smell, to be his bedroom. He carefully sat the older man on the bed and went into the bathroom to turn the shower on, testing the water on the inside of his forearm. When it reached the right temperature – cold enough to wake Haymitch up but not so cold as to cause a panic, Peeta went back into the bedroom and quickly undressed his mentor, piling his soiled clothes off to the side.

 “Whatareyadoin?” Haymitch mumbled as Peeta picked up him back up.

“You need a shower,” Peeta answered quietly. “Come, on.”

He sat his new mentor in the stall. Haymitch’s legs were too unstable to hold him up and the last thing they needed was an additional head injury from falling against the linoleum. He adjusted the shower head so it beat down against Haymitch, then sat on the floor across from the shower, making sure he stayed conscious.

“You’re the baker’s boy?”

“Yeah.”

Haymitch turned his head and stared intently at Peeta. “How much like your old man are you?”

Peeta loved his father. When he was younger, he used to tell everyone that he was going to be just like him when he grew up. His father was his hero. “More than you’d think,” he answered, looking around at their situation.

_Peeta was just a little under Reaping age the first time he finally learned the dark Mellark secret. He woke up in the middle of the night, fresh off of the nightmare of hearing his name called by Effie Trinket, and went in search for his father looking for reassurance. He heard the shower running and poked his head into the bathroom, hoping he could talk to his father before he went to work. But his father was sitting on the closed toilet, wringing his hands together, talking quietly to his mother - slumped against the wall, water beating down her body, mumbling incoherently about something. She turned her head and vomited, covering her bare chest with bile and liquid and hints of their dinner that night. Peeta’s father was instantly at her side, holding her up enough to clean her off. The stench of stale liquor hung in the air, threatening Peeta’s gag reflex. He ran back to his bed, the image of his pale and sick mother far more frightening than any Reaping nightmare he had ever had._

Haymitch snorted. “So. Is there something you want to tell me? Maybe about the scowling girl in the other compartment who’s been trying too hard to ignore your presence?”

Peeta swallowed hard and glanced toward the door. “She has to win. I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure she goes home.”

“More like your father than you think.”


	43. All the Single Parents

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anon requested : Can you do a Drabble where peeta and katniss little kids go to the same school/kindergarten? And they are single parents/ or have a crush or something? Pretty pleeeeeease?

It’s possible that I’m more nervous to find out how Ava’s first day of school went than she was to go to her first day of school. Which explains why I’m here twenty minutes before her class lets out waiting for her. As soon as the bell rings and kids start filing out of the building, I’m searching for her. It’s not hard to find her though, even amongst the other dark haired children, because she’s like a firecracker anywhere she goes. She comes racing over to me full of smiles and leaps into my waiting arms.

“Hi, Baby!” I greet her, hugging her tightly. “How was school? Did you make any friends?”

“Yep!” She prattles on about all the kids in her class and what they did and how exited she that she gets to go back tomorrow. I forget sometimes how much of her dad’s personality she has. She may look like me but anyone who talks to her instantly sees Darius.

It never would have worked between Darius and I. When we found out I was pregnant, he offered to marry me so he could “do the right thing” but I turned him down. We didn’t really love each other, not like you should when you decide to spend your lives together, but he’s done all he can to be a good dad. I’m sure if he hadn’t been called up, he’d be here with me now to pick her up. But such is the life of an Army man.

“Oh!” Ava cries out when I set her down. “I forgot to tell you the best part!” She scrambles to get into her backpack and reveals a small, carefully wrapped item. “We got cookies! But they’re only for after dinner,” she says, clearly having been told so by her teacher in a similar voice. “But Marco gave me some of his and they’re really yummy!”

I frown. I’ve been trying to limit Ava’s sugar intake since there’s a history of diabetes in my family. I know one cookie won’t do hurt but I’d hate for her to get in the habit, just in case. “Who brought cookies?”

“Marco.”

“The boy who gave you some?”

“Yep. Well his papa made them.”

I frowned again but by this point I can’t do anything anyway except maybe convince her to split her cookie with me after dinner. “Ready to head home, Ducky?”

She nods and takes my hand. We begin to walk back to the house when she stops suddenly. “Wait! I’m aposed to say thank you to Marco’s papa!”

I sigh, prepared to tell her that we can tell him thank you some other time.

“Marco!” We hear a loud voice call out.

“Polo!” A younger, but similar voice calls back.

We both turn and watch as a toe-head boy run toward his father - possibly with more enthusiasm than Ava - and get tossed up in the air as if he weighed nothing. Ava is giggling at how high Marco got but I’m too busy staring at the man doing the tossing. He’s about my age, I think, with wavy blond hair that seemed to shine in the late summer sun.  
His smile was bright and filled his face, sending a ripple of joy through the air. And an unexpected lightness through my body.

I give Ava’s hand a squeeze. “Let’s go say thank you to Marco and Mr…”

“Mellark,” she finished for me.

“Mellark,” I repeat, letting the name roll over my tongue, liking the feel of it in my mouth. “Mr. Mellark.”


	44. The Manny

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anon requested: Modern AU Everlark, with Peeta as a babysitter :p

Katnisss groaned as she hung up the phone after the fifth babysitter fell through. She knew it would be a long shot, getting someone at the last minute on a Friday night, but this was absolutely ridiculous. When she was in high school, there were tons of girls looking to make money every weekend, times couldn’t have changed that much, could they? Even her next door neighbor was gone for the weekend. Katniss shifted her six-month old daughter on her hip and sighed. Maybe this was a sign that she wasn’t really ready to date yet. Sure, it had been over a year since she went out with anyone and even then, her last “date” was a groping session in the car right before she told him she was pregnant and he disappeared.

Primrose began to fuss so Katniss warmed up a bottle for her. “It’s okay, baby,” Katniss cooed, “Momma will be here all night for you.” She decided to wait until Prim had quieted down to call Gale to cancel their date. She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t looking forward to it; as much as she loved her daughter, she was going a little stir crazy lately. Her cell phone binged with a text message and she glanced at the message her co-worker, Johanna sent her, wishing her luck on her big night.

<<Canceling it. Can’t find a sitter for Prim.>>

<<Fuck that, Brainless. You need some male companionship. I’ll find you someone.>>

Katniss snorted. <<What? Are you gonna do it?>>

<<Ha. I like you but not that much.>>

Katniss shook her head and tested the bottle on the inside of her arm to make sure it was warm enough. She relished the quiet sucking that fill the tiny kitchen. “This isn’t so bad, is it, Primmy? Just you and me?” Prim pulled away from the plastic nipple and gave Katniss a large, gummy smile. “Yeah, just you and me against the world.” She leaned down and give her dark-haired daughter a kiss on the top of her head.

<<Found you someone. They’ll be there in like 15.>>

<<You already hired them?!?>>

<<Yes. No excuses.>>

After burping Prim, Katniss saw the infant start to yawn, so she took her into the one-bedroom they shared and laid her in her crib. She heard a soft knock on the door and after making sure that Prim was settled down, she opened the door for who she assumed was the babysitter. “Oh,” she gasped, not expecting the babysitter to be a young man. A cute young man with floppy blond curls and an inviting smile.

“Hi. You’re Miss Everdeen? I’m Peeta.” He held his hand out and Katniss stared at it for a few minutes before coming to her senses and shaking it.

“I’m sorry, come on it. I…I…when Johanna said she found a sitter, I wasn’t…”

He laughed softly. “Yeah, I’m not what most people expect. But don’t worry, I’ve got plenty of experience. And references…if that would make you feel more comfortable?”

“Uh, yeah, yeah that would be good. Um…come in. Do you…want something to drink?”

“Water would be good. Thanks.” He smiled at her again which made her stomach tighten unexpectedly.

She brought him a glass of water over and sat on the chair next to the couch that Peeta occupied. He told her about himself, that he’s a semester away from getting his early education degree from Panem U and has been working in a daycare for about three years, floating between the different ages. “I’m First Aid and CPR certified. And…I have been talking this whole time. I’m sorry. Tell me about your…”

“Daughter,” Katniss finished. “Primrose.”

“That’s a pretty name. What do I need to know about her?”

Katniss told him about her schedule, how often she ate and slept. “I shouldn’t be gone long,” she said, almost apologetically, which just made Peeta laugh again.

He rested he hand on hers. “It’s okay, Katniss. Go have fun. Going out with the girls?”

“Um…a date, actually.”

His eyebrows raised and she could have sworn she saw a flash in his eyes. “Really?”

“My first. Since…well since Prim. I’m not much of a dater.” She looked over her shoulder at the microwave. “Um, I should actually probably should head out soon. For…for my date…um…Prim is…Prim is in here, if you want to meet her…” Katniss couldn’t understand why she was so fumbly with her words right now. Peeta was just the babysitter. Sure, the first sitter since Primrose came along that wasn’t her mother but Katniss had no reason to be…nervous around him. She scurried into her bedroom and walked back into the living room with a still-sleeping Prim on her shoulder.

Peeta’s eyes lit up when he caught site of the infant. “Oh, wow. Katniss, she’s gorgeous. She looks just like you. Can I hold her?”

Katniss nodded and felt a rush pass through her when his fingers brushed against her skin in the transition. He held her in his arms, rocking her ever so slightly. He looked so natural, holding the little girl that it made Katniss’ heart swell. She hadn’t even looked so at home with Prim the first time she held her, but here was a nearly complete stranger doing a better job than her. Prim even opened her eyes and after a big yawn and a few seconds of staring into his blue eyes, she smiled up at him and curled her tiny hand around his finger. “Hello, big girl,” Peeta said shaking his finger up and down.

“Okay, well, um, I’m gonna go. I’ll be home in a few hours.” She leaned down and kissed the top of Prim’s head, her nose filled with a mixture of baby and…Peeta. “Bye, little Duck.”

“Bye, Katniss,” Peeta said softly, looking up at her and watching her as she walked out the door.

Throughout the date, Katniss couldn’t keep her mind off the blond babysitter holding Primrose. Nothing Gale said made her want to smile as hard as hearing Peeta call her daughter gorgeous. And when Gale gave her a hug at the end of their date, her skin didn’t feel like it was on fire. Nothing about this date was anywhere near the level she felt after half an hour with Peeta. She was in a world of trouble.

How in the hell was she going to find a babysitter now?


	45. Biker v Biker

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jeeno2 requested: "misunderstanding" everlark

“Nice costume, Brainless,” Johanna said, sliding up next to Katniss and popping the collar of her shirt. “I never picked you for a biker chick but I have to say, leather’s a good look for you.”

Katniss smirked at Johanna’s provocative tree costume. “Not all of us can pull of latex body paint, Jo.”

Johanna ran her hands over her basically nude body in appreciation. “I was disappointed when Peeta said he was too busy to do it for me, but it’s not bad. Speaking of, where is your boo?”

“He had to close up the bakery tonight,” Katniss answered, taking a long drink of her beer. “But he should be here soon.” Tonight was supposed to be Katniss and Peeta’s first event as an official couple rather than as ‘just friends with more sexual tension between them than should be allowed.’ He called her a few hours before Annie and Finnick’s Halloween party was supposed to start to tell her that he would need to help close up the bakery tonight and would meet her there later. Normally she wouldn’t think much of it except that everyone knew they were finally together and she would have liked having him around when their friends decided to gang up on her about it all.

“I, for one, can’t wait to see him all greased up,” Finnick joked, swaggering over toward the girls. He had on a very well-fitted pair of white pants and a white and blue striped tanktop that accented his toned arms and bronzed skin. Annie, for her part, was wearing the skimpiest skirt and a pair of spanks with the word 'Ahoy!’ emblazoned over her butt.

Katniss rolled her eyes but had to admit she felt the same. She and Peeta hadn’t shown each other their finished costumes before the party, wanting to keep some element of mystery and fun. She knew he’d appreciate her outfit of choice – tight faux-leather pants with only a vest over her breasts to give that hint of sex appeal. She even teased out her wavy hair to give it extra volume to look like she had just pulled off a helmet. But she had to admit that “rebel without a cause” Peeta made her a little weak at the knees. She took another drink to try and cool herself down.

“Um…Katniss?” Annie’s soft voice called out. “Is that…?”

“Peeta?” Katniss gasped when she caught site of him coming through the door, not so James Dean but more Lance Armstrong. She pushed through the crowd of party goers to him. “What are you wearing?”

He looked down at his all-spandex outfit, then over at her leather getup. “You said…oooh. Biker.” He laughed loudly and ran his hands through his hair. “I thought you meant biker not…biker.”

Katniss stared at him for a minute then shook her head and started laughing. “Why would that be what you thought of when I said bikers?”

“Because your boyfriend is an idiot, apparently.”

She eyed his costume and stopped at the groin. “Well, they are tight pants, so I guess that’s a win for me. Come on, let’s get you a drink.”


	46. Day from Night PT1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> littleevilisa requested: "Everlark tutoring"

As she pulled up to Abernathy’s, Katniss nervously played with the edge of her braid. She and her roommates found this little hole in the wall bar a few weeks ago for District 12 College’s first football game of the season and by now were generally well-liked by the other fans who filled the tiny bar. District 12 was one of those small but powerful schools when it came to football and the fans were always loyal to one another.

She lucked out getting the roommates she did. Madge and Delly both went to 12 for their undergraduate degrees. They were the girls who were always decked out in their game day outfits and were likely to get caught on ESPN at any given time. Johanna loved football in general but didn’t have a favorite college team, so she easily melded in with the others. Katniss was more than just a fan of the D12 Miners. She was born and raised in the heard of D12 country; if you cut her open, she bled black and gold. Her mother hand-knitted D12 blankets and hats and socks for her when she was born because her father refused to have anyone in the household not in uniform.

Through the highs and lows, she was a die hard. She knew players, coaches, stats, and rivalries – historic, recent, and one-timers. She could call out plays and saw penalties and was always right in the middle of the “Go D12” chants after scores. It was the one time the quiet and serious Katniss Everdeen let loose.

She just, had never had to do it on her own. Madge got called into the clinic that morning. Delly was overloaded with graduate school homework. Even Johanna had to miss the game because of some family emergency back home. Katniss had weighed her options but since she had never purposely missed a football game before, she wasn’t going to start now.  _Besides_ , she reasoned,  _it’s just Abernathy’s. I can sit at the bar and go home as soon as the game’s over_.

Somehow, Katniss forgot that this wasn’t just any week in D12’s schedule, this was the week they played Panem University, an old-school rivalry game that had laid dormant for the past few years. The two had rarely played one another in the regular season, instead were often matched during bowl games. Of the four that had occurred during her life, she distinctly remembered three. One came down to the last minute and rather than kicking the extra point to tie the game, D12 went for the 2-point conversion, losing in the most heartbreaking of fashions. The second, years later, would go down in D12 history as their first bowl win in nearly 10 years and the first of their second back-to-back National Championships. The third, and most recent, was the worst, as far as she was concerned. D12 was over ranked and outplayed the entire game and did little to quell the obnoxious Panem U fans who were known for being poor winners.

“Hey there, Sweetheart,” the owner, Haymitch Abernathy, called to her when she stepped in. “Where’s the rest of your crew?”

“Just me tonight,” she answered, taking her regular spot at the bar. She laid out three coasters in front of her, one for water, one for her beer, and one in the middle to keep her fingers busy. Lord help anyone who tried to disrupt her game-day ritual.

The chubby bartender who was proudly wearing his new D12 shirt set down her drinks, with a side of olives. “The usual?”

Katniss liked that, for the most part, she didn’t have to order her drinks anymore. It was one of the perks of sitting at the bar. That and the team seemed to play better than when the girls sat at one of the nearby tables. As kickoff grew nearer, Katniss watched as the bar quickly filled, half with Miners fans and half with the Capitolites of Panem U.

“Mind if we have a seat here?”

Katniss looked over and saw two men in bright purple Panem U shirts pulling out the bar stools next to her.  _Fuck_ , she thought, wishing she had any reason to say no other than hating the team they were cheering for. She knew this game could get ugly fast – either on the field or off – and was hoping to surround herself with other Miners. “Sure,” she mumbled, turning her back completely to them, even though that meant she’d be giving up the best tv near her.

“Fuck, Marvel, would you take a look at this place?”

“A real shit-hole if you ask me. Wish we could find this game anywhere else.”

_Me too_ , Katniss thought, plopping a few olives into her beer.

“What fuck is that?”

She knew the question was being directed at her. With a heavy sigh, she turned to the front. “It’s a dirty beer,” she answered.

“You D12 girls run hard, don’t you?” The darker haired guy said, his face grimacing. “That looks disgusting.”

She shrugged and took a long drink of her beer, not really surprised by his reaction. Dirty beers were a staple at District 12 parties, the extra brine from the olives helped the beer go down smoother. It wasn’t until a fan of a different team pointed it out that she even realized it was that strange of a tradition.

“Causing trouble, Everdeen?” Haymitch said, making his way over to where she was sitting. Haymitch was a second-string quarterback for D12 back in the 80’s whose claim to fame was a 76 yard game winning scramble his senior year. It was one of those plays that would constantly be shown on reruns because it showed his agility and pure strength – two things the team prided themselves on. Katniss loved it because Haymitch, with a bit of luck and a lot of quick thinking, had somehow made two defenders tackle each other rather than him. Haymitch reached over and popped an olive into his mouth.

“Not if I can help it,” she answered, swatting his hand away.

He just laughed and moved over to welcome to the two new viewers, Cato and Marvel, who were recent graduates of Panem U. Katniss rolled her eyes as they talked about having gone to the National Championship game two years ago and couldn’t wait to go back. “You guys aren’t bad but we’ve got some real talent on our hands,” Cato, the blond, bulky one, stated with a laugh. “Should make for an interesting game.”

Both teams were undefeated coming into the match-up but all the odds were in Panem U’s favor. Someone didn’t give that memo to the Miners’ fans, however, because despite being a 13 point underdog and only being awarded 4,000 tickets, they were completely dominating the 80,000 seat stadium right in the middle of Panem University’s campus. It was a sea of black with specks of purple scattered around. “Looks more like a home game,” one of the Miner regulars cackled over his beer. “We dwell in the darkness, in this dark and dusty hole,”

Other fans around him raised their glasses, Katniss included, and finished the saying, “And though our bodies ache, we pick and load the coal.” The old miner’s prayer had been adopted and adapted by the team and fans as a pregame tradition. Almost every D12 t-shirt had the first line printed on it over a menacing skull and crossbones emblem. There was absolutely nothing about this game that Katniss didn’t love.

The first quarter was an indication of how the day was going to go. The teams struggled back and forth until the last minute as the Miners finally put the first points on the board with a long run from a young, explosive running back who already had ‘Heisman Hopes’ written all over him. Glasses clinked, cheap Jello shots were passed around, the air buzzed with excitement. Katniss couldn’t help but keep an eye on the Capitol fans next to her who were already starting to seethe. By halftime, the Miners were still leading 14-7 but no one felt confident yet. Both teams were playing at their highest level and the game could still go either way.

The slight buzz that Katniss usually felt at the end of the game was in full force by the beginning of halftime. When the bartender asked about a refill, her face was starting to tingle and her head was swimming a little. “You can call me a cab?” She asked, accepting another drink amid the cheers from the Miners next to her. She had always been the responsible one of the group, leaving the drunken boisterousness to Johanna or Delly on occasion.  _Fuck It_ , she thought.  _This game is too intense to quit now_. She even pulled out her phone to snap a picture of her empty olive container – her way of keeping track of her drinks – and sent it to her roommates. She knew they’d get a kick out of it.

<<Damn these clinicals!!>> Delly was the first to text back. <<Trying to catch highlights on radio. Not the same :( >>

She laughed and slipped her phone back into her pocket. She really did wish the other girls were here with her to watch this game. Even Delly, who was the roommate she initially had the least in common with.

“All I’m saying is the 2011 Capitols are easily the best college team ever.”

Katniss nearly choked on her drink as the blasphemous statement hit her ears. She started to laugh because, clearly, no one could seriously believe that. Not even Capitol fans. Apparently her laughter caught the attention of the two Panem U fans next to her who made the outrageous claim.

“Something funny, 12?” The blond asked, staring her down.

She shook her head, trying to keep her grin in check. Something told her this was a guy who wasn’t used to being told just how wrong he was. Especially by a girl. She continued to take sips of her dirty beer as he went on and on about the glory days of his team.

“I’m just saying, Marvel, there is not a team in history that could beat our '11 squad. It’s just impossible.”

Katniss snorted, rolling her eyes. She was so tired of this conversation, because it really wasn’t a debate as far as she was concerned. Capitols were always trying to boast about that one year, completely forgetting about the decade that was dominated by the black and gold Miners.

“What?”

_Oh. Fuck,_  she thought, realizing that she must have been loud enough to catch their attention. “Nothing.”

“You may know a little about the game,” Cato cooed in a patronizing voice, “but football is a man’s sport. So unless you’re going to put on your little cheerleading uniform and shake your poms poms for us, stay out.”

Katniss sucked in her cheeks and took a few deep breaths. She could see the bartender watching her, prepared to step in if needed. The older fans around her started to murmur their disapproval of the way Cato spoke to her but stayed in their seats. Even Haymitch, from across the bar was watching closely. When he caught her eye he smirked and quirked an eyebrow at her.  _Go ahead_ , he was saying.

Of everyone in the bar, Haymitch Abernathy knew a die hard fan when he saw one. The old men who plopped down at the bar every week had seen every game and could rattle off statistics, but there was always something different about that girl. She was fully engaged in the game when it was on, but even during half time, he could tell she was still there. She’d talk about the changes they’d need to make at halftime and the personnel that needed their numbers called more often if the team wanted to succeed.

Of all the people to call out for lack of knowledge about the game, that girl was last on his list.

Katniss grinned and turned back to where Cato and Marvel were still talking. “I was just thinking, Cato, that there’s at least one team that could beat the 2011 Capitolites. I know I’m just a girl and football is such a man’s sport, but I seem to remember the Miners being a battering ram against any team that came up against them during the '05 season.”

Marvel started to snicker but Cato quickly shut him up with a glare. Turning his attention back to Katniss, who was innocently spinning her unused coaster on it’s corner. “Oh little girl, you are about to get schooled so hard.”

_Perfect_ , she thought. She played along, nodding and “mmhmm'ing” with Cato as he outlined every bullet point she had ever heard about his team. The roster full of future NFL leaders, their perfect 12-0 end of season run, and the coup de grâce, the 37-14 whallop they laid down on her own D12 Miners. “Giving us the National Title. Perfect season, perfect roster, perfect team.”

The game was starting back up but no one was paying much attention to it. Instead, all eyes were on the small girl in the black and gold jersey as she prepared to take on the beast in purple. “Those are all excellent points,” she began, popping an olive into her beer. “Clearly that team was the best of that year and the best in your storied program’s history. I don’t think anyone here would disagree with that.” There were a few chuckles to prove her point.

She looked calm, cool, and collected on the outside, but Katniss was freaking out. She didn’t want the attention she knew she was getting and while she was more than confident in what she was about to say, but that didn’t mean she wanted to say any of it. This would have been so much easier if Cato wasn’t such an ass about it. Or made it personal. She glanced back over to where she saw Haymitch earlier and was disappointed to see he was no longer there.  _Now or never, Everdeen_.

“And admittedly, your team had some pretty decisive victories that season against some good teams. How many ranked teams did you guys play during the regular season that year? Three?” She asked, well aware of the answer, as all D12 fans were after having heard this argument every year since the 2011 season.

“Four,” Marvel piped up from behind Cato.

Katniss nodded. “Okay. Four, forgive me. But none ranked in the top five. Or…even in the top ten. So your strength of schedule wasn’t really all that helpful for you guys.”

“We still had 38 guys from that team go pro,” Cato countered. “Seventeen as first round picks alone.”

“True, I suppose I can give you that. You certainly can claim to have the most talent and all-star potential team of all time. But I’m talking about your actual team in that actual year. About your game against the unranked Four State where your margin of victory was 9, or when you barely beat El Tech right before the Rose Bowl. The minimum margin of victor for the Miners in '05 was 14 and that only happened once against the fourth-ranked rushing defense in the country, and we averaged a nearly 40 point margin of victory overall. We didn’t squeak by anyone that year, ranked or unranked.” She felt her heart starting to race and her blood boiling through her veins. She had already started to unravel this idiot’s argument and she knew she couldn’t stop now. She had to completely steamroll him because if she didn’t, he’d step in and try piss his masculine ego all over her.

“We averaged 400 rushing yards a game. Not 400 yards total but 400 rushing yards in the era of the run. Our defense that year, by the way, held our opponents to less than 100 rushing yards per game. We scored 51 rushing touchdowns and allowed only 6. And we averaged a record 7 yards per rushing attempt – a feat your little Capitols can’t even pretend to touch. We gave up zero sacks that season and only allowed a total of 12 years off of our 5 punts all season. We scored, on average, more points in the first half of our games than some national championship teams averaged in their entire games.”

She took a pause to have a drink and point to the screen. “We just scored, by the way. Option to Hawthorne for a 47 yard touchdown.” Another drink of her beer and she saw Cato open his mouth.  _Make him pay for it_ , she heard Johanna’s voice in her head.

“In comparison to your pathetic games against ranked teams, you only had one that in the top 10 and that was us. In 2005, all of our ranked opponents were in the top 10, three of whom were long standing rivalries that have always pushed us to our limits. Our quarterback was the runner up for the Heisman trophy that year but won five additional player-of-the-year awards. Our offense was flanked by the two strongest Mellark boys for the second year in a row and our defense was stacked so deep our third string played in over half the games and we still maintained our victories.

“So next time you try to run your mouth about how good your Capitols are and how much of a man’s game football is, make sure you’re not in a Miner’s bar and you’re not talking to me.” She winked and finished her beer, using her tongue to fish one of the beer-soaked olives into her mouth. “I pick and load the coal, asshole.”

The bar, which had been collectively holding their breaths erupted in a loud cheer. Katniss bit the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling too hard at what she just did. She shifted her attention back to the game once she saw her former competitor slink onto his barstool. It wasn’t long before he paid his bill and scampered out of the bar, giving the crowd another reason to cheer.

“Way to go, Sweetheart,” Haymitch said, sliding into the abandoned seats.

“Thanks,” she answered, finally allowing her face to show her joy. “It felt pretty good to…” her voice trailed off as she turned to talk to him and saw that he wasn’t sitting alone. “Oh my God,” she breathed, her mouth dropping. “Oh my God.”

“Oh yeah, I guess you were too busy to notice him coming in Katniss, this is-”

“Peeta Mellark,” she interrupted, staring at the blond-haired, blue eyed man on the other side of Haymitch. She had a vivid memory of his first game.

She could still vividly remember his first game, when the announcers pointed him out after his first rushing touchdown in the opening series. He pulled off his helmet, shook out his hair, and flashed the biggest smile she had ever seen toward the audience. At the innocent age of twelve, Katniss Everdeen, along with every other woman in District 12, fell in love with Peeta Mellark. Peeta was the youngest of the three boys who were just the latest in a long line of Mellarks attending and playing for District 12. The two youngest sons, Rye and Peeta, were hands down the strongest of the line and if it hadn’t been for Peeta’s career ending injury during his final game, he was projected to have gone second or third overall in the draft. The image of his leg bending in the wrong direction and his shin bone sticking out of his leg when he was carted off the field was forever branded in the memories of all the fans. When the game was won and the trophies were lifted, somehow he was right there with than trademark smile gracing his features.

No one knew if the tears he showed during the post-game interviews came from being voted MVP of the game or because the doctors told him he’d never be able to play again.

Yes, she very much knew who he was.

He grinned and leaned over, extending his hand. “I am. And Haymitch is right – that was one of the most impressive smackdowns I’ve ever seen. Though I’d have to disagree with you on your stance.” He clasped Haymitch on the shoulder. “Those '81 Miners were a bit of a legend themselves.”

Haymitch snorted. “I’m still not buying your drinks, Pretty Boy.” He stood from his chair and nodded to Katniss. “Be good, you two.”

If Katniss wasn’t still in shock from not only seeing her favorite player in the flesh but from actually touching his hand, she would have had a snarky comeback of her own. Her silence just made Haymitch laugh as he sauntered off.

“Katniss, huh?”

“It’s a flower,” she blurted out, suddenly cursing herself for drinking as many beers as she had. Her sober mind would have kept her calm right now rather than spouting off meaningless information and unable to control the flush that overtook her face. Or the uncharacteristic giggle that escaped her lips. “My name…is a…it’s a type of plant…”

Peeta smiled even wider at her. “Well it’s even prettier then.” He pointed to the screen. “Looks like the game’s basically over.”

“It’s not over till time runs out,” she said, repeating the mantra her father always said.  _Winning or losing, Katniss, you stay till time runs out_.

“Cheers to that.”

She glanced over at him and saw that he was pretending to watch the rest of the game but was really looking at her with a small grin on his face.

“Well, when time runs out, would you maybe want to get some dinner with me?”

“Me?” Katniss squeaked.

He chuckled. “Yeah, you. But only on one condition.”

“What…what’s that?”

He leaned over and brushed his shoulder against her. “You have got to promise you’ll talk about football with me. I couldn’t look away from you when you were going to town on that guy. You had quite the effect on me.”

Katniss laughed and turned her head away. “I suppose I could do that.”


	47. Day from Night PT 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mig14 requested a followup to football!Everlark based on a super hot picture of Clay Matthews stretching that I can't find anymore

Katniss had barely been able to contain her excitement when her father won tickets to the Miner’s season opener from work. There was never a doubt he was going to take her - she knew he loved how big of a fan she was, even at the tender age of twelve. While most girls her age were into dress up and makeup, Katniss fell, fast and hard, in love with football. 

“Both Mellark brothers are starting,” her father mentioned to her as they scooted their way into their seats. “This is history in the making, Munchkin.”

Katniss just nodded, knowing all about the Mellark legacy. She was full of nerves and excitement, having never been to a Miner’s game before. Let alone a historic one like this. She was too short to see over most of those around her, so she stayed standing, staring across the field to soak in everything she could.

She watched as the team jogged out from the locker rooms to begin their warmups and stretches, instantly recognizing the Heisman candidate quarterback, the star wide receivers, and the renowned defense.

“There they are,” her father said, pointing to where a group of boys were stretching at midfield. “Rye and Peeta Mellark.”

Katniss couldn’t explain the feeling that shot throw her preteen body at the sight of the cute freshman stretching out his hamstrings. Her face flushed and she instantly shifted her gaze, but she couldn’t help but to glance back over at him. She kept her eyes on him the entire game. When he scored his first touchdown and took his helmet off to flash his gorgeous smile at the crowd, she knew she was a total goner.

One look at his daughter and Mr. Everdeen figured that she could be a lot worse off than having a crush on the young Peeta Mellark.


	48. Day from Night PT 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> smordesigns requested a third followup to football!Everlark

<<is the game as bad as the score makes it seem?>>

Johanna’s response was instantaneous. <<worse. get.here.now!!!!!>>

<<on my way now>>

Katniss threw her phone into her bag as she stormed out of the video store. She wasn’t supposed to be at her part-time job today, since she had requested every Saturday during football season off, but when two of the other employees quit out of nowhere, she had no choice. Thankfully her shift manager took pity on her and after the second hour of a completely dead store, he left her go early.

Not early enough, as she had already missed most of the first half of the second game of conference play, where the phrase ‘any given Saturday’ found its true meaning. Once in the car, Katniss peeled off her uniform top and slipped into her jersey.

“If we lose, it’s all your fault,” she muttered to her discarded top. Game day tradition meant the first shirt worn was a game shirt. It was silly but who was she to argue with tradition and superstition? Especially since, by the looks of things, her team needed all the help they could get.

The bar was already packed when she arrived, with a cold beer and fresh olives ready at the seat next to Johanna.

“This had been a fucking disaster,” Johanna said, rolling her eyes at the screen. “It’s liked they drugged our guys or something.”

“Score doesn’t seem bad,” Katniss responded between much needed gulps of her briney beer.

“If only. I have no idea how we’ve kept it so close.”

Katniss shrugged. “Luck? Is Peeta here?”

Johanna snickered. “Yeah, Loverboy came around here looking for you a little bit ago. I think he’s out with smokers.”

Katniss finished her beer in a few mouthfuls. “K. I’ll be back. Next round is on me. And some fries? I need nervous food.” She got up from the table and made her way toward the back of the bar, near the rear entrance the smokers used during halftime. Peeta wasn’t a smoker, but he was a favorite amongst the old timers who chain smoked during breaks in the game.

She bumped his hip with hers to catch his attention and was rewarded with that trademark smile of his. “You made it,” he greeted.

“Just in time for the shit show, apparently.”

“Haymitch says you’re not allowed to miss anymore games,” he told her when they finally made their way back  inside for the second half. “Especially if we pull off a miracle.”

And a miracle they  _almost_  pulled off. Three consecutive plays had Katniss successfully asking for “just one more touchdown” until the last Hail Mary pass was deflected and the Miners lost by 5. 

* * *

“Fucking Christ,” Katniss mumbled, not even in the mood to finish her cheese fries. “This is re-fucking-diculous.”

Five weeks after the “oh-so-close” loss against their first ranked opponent, the Miners were getting completely destroyed by yet another ranked team. The first quarter had the entire bar in excited anticipation which was almost instantly deflated when the Miners lost their 14 point lead and gave up 21 unanswered points.

Even Peeta, who had been an ever-calming presence during games, was angrily rapping his knuckles on the table and letting out annoyed huffs after each miscue. His normally bright blue eyes were dark with frustration and annoyance. They didn’t stay for the whole game, going against everything Katniss stood for, but even she couldn’t stomach the complete dismantling that was happening on the field.

It was a dark week for everyone in her apartment after that loss.

The next week’s loss wasn’t any better. And the next week, when the Miners barely won over their nearest rivals, with one of the worst records in the league.

* * *

<<turn on ESPN>>

Peeta’s critic text message the morning after the last game of the season made Katniss’ stomach churn. There had been rumors all season, exacerbated after their three losses, but she never thought of them as more than just disgruntled fans who were used to being the best. Not as anything serious.

But there he was. The face of her coach above the scrolling news. 'District 12 Miners released head coach last night after team’s win’

“Holy fuck,” she whispered. “No way.” She forwarded Peeta’s text to Madge and Delly who were back home for Thanksgiving, then called Peeta. “Is this for real?”

“From everything I’ve heard, yes. AD has a press conference scheduled this afternoon to discuss it.”

Katniss frowned as the anchors of Sports Center discussed the sudden firing. “There must be a replacement already in the works. They aren’t even having him coach the bowl game.”

She can all but hear him nod and rub the back of his neck, a nervous tic of his. “Likely. This AD is the ultimate politician. He won’t take any chances unless he’s sure.”

“Hmm. Fuck.”

Peeta laughed. “I know. But it was probably time. Once the emotions settled, I think everyone will see that. He couldn’t win us the games we needed for seven years. The margin of losses were, for the most part, way too high for a successful program.”

“It didn’t matter that we lost. Only that we lost big?” She asked.

“Basically.” He let out a sigh. “I’ll be back in a couple days. Feel like having a football free date night?”

“That sounds gross,” she answered, rolling her eyes and smiling. “Can’t wait.”


	49. Cheese Bagels and Coffee

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lifeisshiny requested: Everlark AU, meeting in a hospital waiting room

“Afternoon, Katniss.”

I nod at the desk nurse as I walk past her, not surprised that she knows my name, even if I don’t know hers. I’ve been coming every day for the past two weeks but I’ve been too concerned about my father than any of the nurses. My mother knows them, as does my sister, so I don’t worry about it as much as I probably should.

I glance into the room next door where my father’s co-worker, Samuel Hawthorne, is lying in the same bed with the same affliction from the same accident. His oldest son, Gale, is with him, though I know from the past that his wife and the rest of the Hawthorne bunch will be in as soon as school is out. Just like ours, the entire family stays in his room for as long as possible each day. Gale is a few years older than me and we’ve only interacted a few times, both of us keeping more to ourselves, but Prim and Rory, Gale’s oldest younger brother, are in the same class at school and know each other quite well.

Gale sees me in the doorway and nods slightly. We’re both pretending to be prepared for the inevitable. They’re the last two struggling to survive after mine they were working in collapsed, killing the majority of their crew on site. We pretend because someone has to.

“Hey Dad,” I say, entering his room and sitting in the chair beside him. Mom is probably struggling through her own work shift at the moment, a few floors down, assisting an OB-GYN deliver babies or something. Prim will be here soon, once she and Rory are done with school, so for a short time, it’s just me and Dad. I take his hand in mine, taking care to not disturb the IVs connected to him. They’ve scrubbed the coal dust from his skin, making him feel closer to death.

He can’t speak to us from his coma, but the doctors say he can hear us. “Sorry it’s just me,” I joke, “you know I’m not big for small-talk.” I imagined him laughing at me for this, since he’s the same way. “Why talk when you can do, huh?”

I tell him about my day at WalMart, including that our new manager, Haymitch Abernathy, is a jerk but is slowly growing on me. “He’s a grump and I’m pretty sure he’s carrying a flask with him, but he doesn’t put up with anyone’s crap. Plus he calls me ‘sweetheart.’ Just like…” my voice catches in my throat, “just like you did. Only he’s more obnoxious about it.”

I don’t say much else for the rest of our time together. And as much as I want to soak up as much time as he has left, I’m relieved when I hear the rumble in the hallway from all the kids. The room doesn’t feel as stifling when Prim’s in it with us.

This has become my family’s life. It’s slowly driving us insane. My mother is becoming withdrawn, my sister looks sickly because we’ve been living on cheap hospital food and rarely see the outdoors for too terribly long. I’m more withdrawn, more angry. But none of us say a word.

* * *

Our hospital-induced cabin fever is made completely unbearable by the thunderstorm that rages outside. I’ve been in a foul mood all day, snapping more than once at my mother’s apathetic reaction to the doctors’ updates. So when Prim ushers me into the waiting room and away from the source of my anger, I easily leave my father’s side and huff out of his room.

The younger kids are already in the waiting area, reading or playing with some of the toys, with Gale sitting in the back watching them. I plop down in the chair furthest away from them all and lean my head against one of the big windows. As the storm rages on outside, the waiting room grows louder and my patience wears thin.

“Keep an eye on Prim, will you?” I mumble to Gale, pushing myself off the chair. I don’t know exactly where I’m going, just anywhere away from there.

I wander around the halls of the hospital until the smell of freshly brewed coffee lures me toward the cafeteria. All the waiting rooms have coffee but nothing compares to the specialty coffees they have available in the cafeteria. I dig around in my pocket and pull out a crumpled five dollar bill that I stuffed in there before my work shift today. “Vanilla latte, please,” I mumble, sliding the money across the counter.

The barista silently makes my order and hands me my minimal change. My stomach grumbles and I stare longingly at the freshly baked rolls on display.

Turning back, I ask. “How much for a cheese bagel?”

“$3.75,” the barista answers in a bored tone as my face sinks. Even without counting, I know I don’t have enough for it. I want to kick myself for buying the expensive coffee when I could have gotten a good-enough cup upstairs for free.

“Nevermind,” I mutter, turning away and narrowly avoiding the person standing behind me, trying not to scowl when I hear him order his coffee and two bagels. I find a table far away from the coffee station, enjoying the relatively peace and quiet.

I’m staring into nothing, so when someone sets a freshly toasted cheese bagel in front of me, I jump out of my skin. “Sorry,” a voice says, “I thought you saw me…coming…” I look straight into a pair of bright blue eyes that I’ve never seen before. He’s smiling at me, like one smiles at an old friend. “Is it alright if I join you?”

He doesn’t wait for me to respond before he pulls out the chair across the table from me and settles in with his own food. “I didn’t say you could.”

“Do you want me to leave?” I glare at him, but he seems to not even notice as he goes about spreading peanut butter on his cinnamon raisin bagel. “You should eat that before it cools down. They’re better warm.”

I pick at it, saving the warm cheesy top for the end. “Why are you here?”

He glances up at me with raised eyebrows. “I got hungry.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

He smirks and sets his bagel down. “I had surgery to reconstruct my torn ACL.” I look down and notice his crutches leaning against the wall and the elaborate brace on his outstretched knee. “Coach insisted that I stay overnight for observations but, to be honest, I was getting way too cooped up in my room. So I snuck out. You seem to be delightfully free of crutches and braces, so you’re not here for yourself.”

I shake my head. “My dad.”

“How’s he doing?” When I don’t answer, he exhales loudly. “If he was doing well you wouldn’t be down here all by yourself. Smart, Peeta. Sorry for bringing it up.”

I shrug. “No big deal.” I take a sip of my coffee. I don’t know what makes me want to keep talking to him, especially since I came down here to get away from people. “How’d you tear your ACL?”

His eyes light up as he tells me that he’s a collegiate wrestler. “First of my family to go to college, actually,” he announces proudly. “Even if it is on a sports scholarship, which my mom hates, of course.” Apparently he was in a major wrestling tournament, the finals, when he blew out his knee during a take down. “I lost the match, first one of the whole season. I mean, Coach says it was just because of my knee, that I had the guy, but a loss is a loss. I’m just lucky it happened right at the end of the season.”

I nod along, more than willing to let him talk about wrestling and college and his life. He’s an engaging talker, even getting me to smile once or twice. I finish my coffee and after considerable debate, allow him to buy me another. I blame his puppy dog eyes as he told me he wanted to avoid all the hubbub awaiting him back in his room. “Celebrity status ain’t all it cracked up to be,” he said with an overdramatic sigh.

“You poor thing,” I joked back. “How will you survive? What?” I notice him staring at me.

He smiles. “You have let me talk all night long, I’ve bought you coffee and food and I know nothing about you. Like, your favorite color?”

I roll my eyes at him. “Green. Yours?”

“Orange.”

“Gross,” I shoot back automatically, which makes him laugh.

“Not the garish Panem University orange, more like a soft orange. Think…sunset.”

I haven’t seen an official sunset in so long, but as he goes on to describe his favorite version of orange, it’s almost like it’s right in front of me. “I always preferred sunrise,” I tell him, “that’s when my dad and I would head out into the woods to hunt.”

Peeta reaches over and rests his hands gently on mine. “I really hope you get another sunrise with him.”

I don’t realize I’m crying until I see the teardrop land on his hand. “Me too.”

“You should go be with him, not down here with a complete stranger. Can I walk you back up there?”

I nod. “Yeah.” I rub the tears from my eyes. “Yeah, I’ll allow that. At least you’ll get a few more minutes of quiet, right?”

“Something like that.” We slowly walk back toward the ICU unit. “Um…” He nervously clears his throat, “I’m discharged tomorrow evening. If you…need an break, I’m in 4512.”

“I’ll bring the coffee this time,” I tell him. Without thinking, I lean forward and press my lips against his cheek. It’s my way of thanking him for distracting me all night, for breaking me free from my mood, for not pushing about anything. For the coffee, the food, the company, for whatever happened tonight.

He flushes when I pull away, which makes me grin a little harder. “Wait,” he stops me before I can go. “I don’t know your name.”

“Katniss.”

“Till tomorrow, then, Katniss.”

I’m still grinning when I arrive at Dad’s room. “Katniss, where have you been?” My mom asks, rushing to me.

“I needed coffee,” I say. “Why? What’s happened? Is Dad alright?”

She has tears streaming down her face, but she’s smiling and nodding her head. “He woke up. Just a few minutes ago. He’s awake.”


	50. Deal in Secrets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> arollercoasterthatonlygoesup requested: Everlark as any other ship from the Hunger Games series canon or fanon”.  
> I have a soft spot in my heart for Finhanna soooooo, this is Everlark as Finhanna

Katniss took in her surroundings with a sickening mix of awe and hate. The short bursts of Capitol life she saw before the 71st Games, had not adequately prepared her for the final stop on her Victory Tour. President Snow’s mansion was lavishly decorated to celebrate the latest victor and her home district of seven. “This is all for you,” her escort, the twittering idiot, reminded her as they made their way up the steps, past all the citizens who couldn’t wait to finally see the cunning victor for themselves.

She wanted to shake off their intruding fingers, reaching out to touch her dress and shoulders as she passed them. She longed to be back home in her woods, away from all these  _people_. Katniss had never been much of a ‘people person’ but she found herself longing for alone time more and more ever since that piece of paper with her name on it was fished from the glass bowl almost a year ago.

Inside, there was even more lavishness; foods as far as she could see, tables full of drinks of all kinds, and more people than she had ever been around in her life. She gulped, losing a bit of her natural bravado, and needing to lean against a wall to catch her breath and calm her turbulent mind.

“I don’t think anyone here buys that act anymore.”

Katniss jumped at the seductive voice that spoke to her. Looking up, she found herself staring into the bright blue eyes of the Capitol darling, Peeta Mellark, who had saddled up next to her. She knew who Peeta was, everyone in Panem knew his story. Not only was he the youngest Victor in the history of the games or the recipient of the most expensive sponsor gift while in the arena, but he was undoubtedly the most naturally attractive Victor, even more than some of the District 1 and 2 women who were known for their beauty. He attended every Capitol party and always had a different woman on his arm. Although Katniss had never met the confident and flirtatious man from District 4, she was already turned off by him and how quickly he had been turned by the very people who would have cheered his death.

“What act is that?”

“The weak, scared little girl act you put on during your pre-Games interview. I have to admit, though, you completely fooled me.” He winked at her as if he were letting her in on some big secret of his.

She rolled her eyes. “That was the plan. Seemed to work on everyone else, too.”

“In the Capitol or the Arena?”

She glared at him, biting down on her bottom lip to keep from going off of this pretty-boy Career. He hadn’t needed a plan for survival in his games – he had been the front-runner from the moment his name was called and never struggled for anything once he was actually in the Arena. He didn’t struggle with the blurring lines of his identity like she had to.

He leaned down, his lips brushing against her ear. “The Arena was just a dress rehearsal for the rest of your life now, Katniss Everdeen. Very little in this world is as it appears, and nothing is given for free.” He began to pull away. “Remember that and you’ll be fine.”

“Wait, Peeta,” she called, reaching out for his hand. “What do I owe you for that little piece of advice?”

Peeta smirked. “That one’s on the house.”

“How much do you normally charge for your services?”

His eyes dilated for a second at her choice of words. There was no way she could know, even if she was a Victor now. Snow wouldn’t drop that bomb on her until it was almost time for the next Reaping. And no one outside of his clients and other Victors knew how he had spent so many nights. He brushed a strand of her hair behind her ear, letting his thumb trail down her jaw, “We’ll deal in secrets.” He leaned over and kissed her cheek softly.

Her skin tingled from the brief contact of his lips. “Why secrets?”

“Because for people like you and me, secrets are all we have. Keep them close, Katniss, don’t just give them away.” He gave her another wink and disappeared into the crowd.

Katniss’ escort found her and scolded her for not making the most of the party, though she did seem pleased when Katniss was able to blame Peeta for her 'rudeness.’ The rest of the night was a blur of people and conversations. During President Snow’s speech, congratulating her and her victory, she caught site of Peeta again. He was whispering something into the ear of a wealthy Capitol woman who looked like she wanted to take him right there on the floor. He briefly caught her eye and for once, she saw a flicker of pain and disgust.

It was the last time she saw Peeta Mellark until the pair was bought by a married couple from the Capitol with a voyeur fetish.


	51. First Grade with Mr. Peeta

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> birthday drabble for swishywillow

“Katniss!!” Prim cried out, running across the schoolyard to where her sister was leaning against a tree, waiting for her.

“Hey, Duck! How was your first day of school?” Katniss asked, wrapping her little sister up in her arms and swinging her around.

Prim giggled loudly. “It was soooo much fun and I missed you and Mama at first but then I made friends and my teacher is really nice!” When Katniss put her down, she gripped her sister with her tiny six-year-old hand and swung it back and forth as the girls began their walk home. She told Katniss all about her first day of first grade, barely even stopping to take a breath.  “And Mr. Peeta wants to meet all our parents at the…the…open house next week and I know Mama isn’t feeling well but do you think she could come anyway? Cause I want Mr. Peeta to meet Mama.”

Katniss squeezed her baby sister’s hand. “Maybe, Primmy. We’ll see how Mama’s feeling, okay?” She didn’t want to upset her sister with the truth that their mother would never really be feeling well enough to be at an open house. Her doctors likely wouldn’t let her out of the hospital for anything other than major events – like graduation or a wedding. At least, that’s what Katniss assumed since she dropped out of college after her freshman year when her mother’s health deteriorated to the point where she couldn’t even take care of Prim on a daily basis.

It took a few years for all the paperwork to become final, but at the age of 22, Katniss finally got power of attorney over her mother and became Prim’s legal guardian. Despite the large age gap, the sisters were as close as could be. Their father died early on in Eva’s pregnancy with Primrose and even Katniss was surprised that she took care of herself well enough to give birth. She did well for a while, dealing with the crippling depression she was clearly dealing with. But when Katniss left for college, it only took a few months before it became too much for Eva to handle.

“What do you want for dinner tonight?” Katniss asked when they reached the tiny house. The mortgage had been paid off a few years before Prim was born so when Eva had to be admitted fulltime to a hospital, the girls were able to keep it with no problems from the bank.

Prim kicked her shoes off, dumped her backpack next to the door and ran into her room yelling “Mac and Cheese!” behind her.

Katniss laughed and picked up after her sister, making sure to go through the girl’s backpack for any first day of school paperwork she’d have to fill out. Sure enough there was a bright pink folder full of release forms and health questionnaires and general permission slips. She started a pot of water, figuring Prim deserved whatever dinner she wanted after her first day of school, but made a point to also make up a dandelion salad.

In the back of the folder was a letter from Mr. Mellark, or Mr. Peeta as Prim and the other kids in the class called him, introducing himself and describing what they would be learning that year. He mentioned that this was his first actual class but he was looking forward to working with all the kids and getting to know the parents on a more personal level. He wanted to make sure whatever happened in his class modeled what was happening at home, so he was sure to include a list of rules that he would be enforcing, including not talking over other students, waiting for their turn, and getting along with others.  _If there are any other things you are working on at home, please feel free to let me know as soon as possible_.

She grinned at the thoughtfulness of this teacher but wondered if he knew what he was getting himself into with a class full of six year olds who hadn’t been in school for a full day before. She still found herself struggling with Primrose and she was, as far as Katniss could tell, relatively well behaved. Not that she didn’t love her sister or regret taking guardianship of her; college wasn’t really a huge deal for her and she was doing well enough with her job at Ripper’s that money wasn’t a huge issue at the moment. It might be, at some point, but that was a struggle for another day.

* * *

Open House at Panem Elementary school was, apparently, a big deal. The kids spent the entire day decorating their rooms and the hallways so when the parents arrived, it looked like the art room threw up inside the school. But Prim was so excited to point out her locker, “With my NAME on it!”

“How do you know that’s your name?” Katniss asked, pretending to study the large P-R-I-M-R-O-S-E on the picture of the sun on her locker. “I think that spells something different. I think that’s my name!”

Prim giggled “Katniss, you’re so silly! I know how to spell my name. Duh!”

Katniss tugged gently on her sister’s two braids and laughed with her. “Well you are in the first grade now. Come on, show me around.”

Panem Elementary hadn’t changed a bit since Katniss went there, it still had the same faded mint green walls and broken floor tiles and the undeniable scent of harsh lemon cleaner. Prim dragged her around the school to all the different rooms she’d be using – she loved the art room but hated the gymnasium because it was too loud and bright – ending up back near her locker at classroom 12, first grade, P. Mellark.

Despite the crepe-paper orgy outside, the inside of the classroom was artfully decorated. The kids’ pictures were up along the wall along with some of the things they had already done in class. Katniss was pleased to see that her sister’s work had stickers and smiley faces littered all over it, it meant that she was able to bounce back from what had to be the worst year of her life when their mom fell apart.

“Katniss! Come meet Mr. Peeta!” Prim cried out, grabbing her sister’s hand and pulling her across the room with more strength than Kantiss realized the little girl had. “Mr. Peeta! Mr. Peeta! This is my sister, Katniss!”

Katniss used her free hand to reach out to Prim’s teacher, her eyes following the line of their hands, up his arms, past his chest and to his face. Even though they were about the same age, she never would have guessed he was old enough to teach thanks to his boyish features and the slight red on his cheeks. His bright blue eyes gave him away, even hidden underneath his wire-frame glasses. There was an undeniable heat between them stemming from their conjoined hands and when they released their hands, their fingers lingered for a few moments.

“So this is Katniss,” he said, mostly to Prim. He smiled up at Katniss and she could have sworn she saw a glimmer of light shine off of them. “I’ve heard a lot about you. I’m Peeta Mellark.”

“I’ve heard a lot about you too, Mr. Mellark,” she answered, with a look down at her sister who was now beet red from embarrassment. Because ever since that first day, all Primrose did was talk about what Mr. Peeta did that day, or what they learned from Mr. Peeta, or how Mr. Peeta always smiles at everyone. At the time, Katniss thought Prim was just being starry eyed, but when Peeta smiled at her, she realized just how easy it could be fall hard for him if she wasn’t careful.

He laughed easily. “Well, Primrose is quite the enthusiastic student. Always excited to give answers, even when it’s not her turn.”

“Primrose,” Katniss began to reprimand but was stopped by Peeta.

“No, it’s not become a problem yet. And we talk about it, don’t we, Prim?” She nodded yes with the vibration of a bobble head. “She’s very intelligent so it’s hard to tell her to stop sometimes.”

“Intelligent, manipulative, whatever word you want to use,” Katniss muttered. She covered her mouth with her hand as soon as the words came out because she realized that was probably not the most appropriate thing to say to a teacher at open house. “Sorry. She’s…”

“She’s a cute kid,” Peeta agreed, tousling Prim’s hair. “She looks a lot like you. Oh. Um..Oh…” He turned as red as Prim had been and fumbled to say  _anything_  to diffuse the situation. Katniss’ heart thumped in her chest that this cute guy was struggling to talk in front of her. It wasn’t an experience she had ever had before and was affecting her in unfamiliar ways. She wouldn’t lie and say he wasn’t attractive because, clearly he was. And he was so good with Prim that it made her wonder…

 _He’s good with her because he’s her teacher, Brainless_.

“Well, I’ve got some other parents to meet,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand, giving her a reluctant smile. “But, um, you know, if you want to get involved, we usually need extra parents for field trips…” He reached onto his desk and pulled out a sheet of paper with all the potential field trips the class would be taking that year. “I mean…Prim says you like to…be…outside and we’ve got some…”

“I’d love to.”

He grinned again and they both stood there for a few minutes, smiling like idiots before Prim huffed. “Katniss! I still wanna show you my desk.”

“Sure, Prim,” Katniss said, following her baby sister across the room. She threw one last look over her shoulder and saw Peeta, already in a new conversation with a different set of parents, catch her eye and grin again.

 _This could be a long year_.


	52. Stag Wedding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sleepy-baby-peeta requested: Everlark, two miserable people meeting at a wedding au

It wasn’t that Katniss wasn’t happy for Thom and Delly – they seemed like the perfect couple, even if Gale thought Delly was easily more attractive than Thom. The ceremony was beautiful, if more than extravagant thanks to the bride’s family, and made Katniss want to vomit at all the ooey-gooey romance. The only thing that made the day even remotely bearable was that Thom promised the reception would be more up her alley.

Apparently Thom thought ‘up Katniss’ alley’ meant a cocktail hour at the swankiest hotel in town, complete with complementary glasses of champagne and food she had never even heard of, let alone tasted. She sat at one of the small tables in the ‘waiting area’ with table placements for her, Gale, and Madge. The small victory was that at least Thom had his fellow graduate students sitting together so Katniss wouldn’t be alone at the single’s table.

 “Have you seen this spread?” Gale exclaimed with a mouthful of food. “This is better than ours, babe.”

Madge rolled her eyes and slid into the chair next to Katniss. “Everything was better than ours, such are the consequences of getting married before either of us have jobs. But I have to admit the chicken and waffle bar is pretty impressive.”

“There’s a chicken and waffles bar?” Gale practically whined, searching out the room for it. “Baaaaabe.”

“Oh my God, GO. And bring me back one.”

“And me,” Katniss piped up. “Because that sounds disgusting and fantastic at the same time.”

The girls relaxed into their chairs, sipping their champagne and catching up on the latest grad school gossip. It wasn’t like either of them had anything new to talk about, but it was part of their tradition, especially when Gale wasn’t around since he complained when they talked about people he didn’t know. Katniss finished her champagne and fished some cash from her purse. “I’m going to get another drink. You want something?”

“White wine,” Madge requested. “Whatever the house is.”

The second small victory, which Thom hadn’t told her about, was that they were having a top-shelf open bar. Katniss wasn’t much of a drinker but there was nothing like a nice buzz to get through the wedding. Especially if it was free and with good alcohol.

The cocktail hour lasted almost two, not that Katniss minded since she and Gale were stuffing themselves with free food and drinks. Madge agreed early on to drive them both home, giving them free access to thoroughly enjoy themselves. When the doors to the reception hall opened, it turned out to be more glamorous than the waiting area. The entire room was draped in starch white linens with soft Christmas-style lights, giving the room a constant twinkling. Classy and rich, just like Delly. “This so does not seem like a Thom wedding,” Katniss whispered to Gale.

“I know. But he swears this is more about her family than her. Says she’s a lot more down to earth than this,” Gale answered. “Plus, I mean, she makes him happy so I guess that’s good.”

Katniss snorted. “Sure. Happy. Here’s our table.”

“I wonder who else is sitting with us,” Madge asked, sitting next to Gale.

“Leevy and Bristol,” Gale answered, nodding to the couple walking through the door. “I’m surprised they were even allowed in the church.”

“Stop it,” Madge hissed. “Be nice. Hi, ladies!”

Leave it to Madge to be the only person able to calm Gale down and not bat an eyelash. She was the great mediator in the group and, as far as Katniss was concerned, the best thing to happen to her friend, even if they did get married young. Theirs was the only marriage that Katniss didn’t actively despise.

What she did despise was being left alone at the table after dinner when all the couples filled the dance floor to help the bride and groom celebrate. From the looks of it, there weren’t many other single people there, making her feel even more annoyed. At least there wasn’t anyone waiting in line for a drink.

“Katniss! I’m so glad you’re here!” Delly’s voice called out to her. Katniss knew it was tradition for the bride and groom to come around and see their guests, she just wished it had been when someone else was at her table, so she wasn’t quite as pathetic looking.

She plastered on her best fake smile and turned to the newly married couple. “Hi, Thom. Delly. You look beautiful.”

Delly snorted. “Anyone would in the right dress. Personally, I just can’t wait to get into something more comfortable. The corset that Mother insisted I wear underneath is basically cutting off circulation to my body. Anyway, there’s someone I wanted to introduce you to.”

“Del,” Thom warned in a low voice.

“What?” She asked with an impish grin. “Oh, here he is. Katniss, this is my cousin, Peeta. His date cancelled on him at the last minute so he’s here alone, too.”

“Thanks, Del,” the blond man behind her said sarcastically. “I’m so glad you’re broadcasting that.”

“Sorry. I just thought that maybe you two could keep each other company… What do you think? I told you she was cute.”

“Oh my God, Delly!” Thom hissed, pulling his new wife away from the situation, leaving just Peeta and Katniss in the awkward wake.

“Is it worse if I just leave?” He asked, running his hand through his hair. “Because something tells me she’ll be back. Delly is…persistent.”

Katniss snorted. “So I’ve heard.  I can’t tell you how many stories Thom’s told us about her stubborn streak.”

“How do you know Thom?”

It was that simple. They talked about school and Peeta’s job. About the guests at the wedding who were in full black-tie affair despite the invitation never mentioning a dress code. They drank beers and he even got her out on the dance floor for one of those ridiculous line dances that somehow everyone knows but no one remembers who they learned it from. And when it ended, rather than going back to the table, Katniss allowed him to pull her in for a dance – her first slow dance at a wedding. He stepped on her feet a couple times but was so sweet and genuine in her apologizes that she didn’t even mind, once even purposely stepping on his as a joke.

They stood next to each other, shaking out their tubes of confetti when Delly and Thom left, on route to their honeymoon, Peeta with his arm around her waist. “I had a lot of fun tonight,” he told her, pulling her close to his side. “Honestly, I was absolutely miserable for a long time.”

“Why’s that? Not a big fan of weddings?” They were sitting outside the hotel, attempting to cool off in the middle of July.

He shook his head. “Not particularly. I didn’t exactly have the best example of what a marriage should be growing up so I’ve always been skeptical of them. Plus, this was…my God the most ridiculous wedding ever.”

Katniss started laughing in agreement. “Right? I swear, I’m never getting married but if I did, it would basically be the exact opposite of that.”

“Something small, intimate, with a party afterward that didn’t serve roasted duck paninis and lobster puffs.”

“Exactly.” She sighed and leaned her head against her shoulder, looking at his silhouette in the moonlight. She reached over and laced her fingers with his. He shifted over and gently pressed his lips against hers.  She smiled when they pulled apart, even though this nonsense was just the kind of ooey-gooey she hated. Hooking up at a wedding was so cliché and so not her. But between the atmosphere and the drinks and actually having fun at one of these things, she couldn’t stop herself.  She kissed him again, hungrily, pulling him closer to her, not wanting to let go. When he mumbled something about his hotel room, she agreed, texting Madge to let her know she wouldn’t need a ride home.

It was crazy and stupid and impulsive. But she didn’t regret a moment of it. Not the way his lips felt as they ghosted over her body. Or how strong his hands were, holding her in place as he slid into her over and over. Or how safe she felt in his arms afterwards.

He called her the next day. Called, not texted. They met for coffee. They had lunch. He was good with her terror of a cat - better than she was. He told her about his parents, how his mother was an abusive bitch and his father never stood up for himself. She told him about her father’s death and her mother’s inability to handle it. They talked about their siblings, their friends, everything. Over dinner. In bed. Anywhere and everywhere.

* * *

Delly never let them forget the role she played in getting them together. She joked about it in her toast at the rehearsal dinner, even going so far as to suggest that Delilah was a beautiful name for their first daughter, even though they had already talked about potential names for their barely-there bun in the oven that no one else knew about. With “Delilah” as her middle name.


	53. Fertility Curse - Thelly (Delly x Thom)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dandelionlass requested: Thelly and their fanonically legendary fertility

“I’m really glad you guys could make it to our picnic today,” Peeta told a very pregnant Delly, grabbing the dish of her famous cheesy potato casserole from her. “I know your due date is coming up soon.”

“Not soon enough,” Delly sighed, rubbing her hand over her swollen belly. “I swear, each of these babies turns me into more and more of a cow.”

Thom came up and gave her a hug from behind, resting his chin on his wife’s shoulder. “You’re not a cow. You’re beautiful.” He kissed her cheek and she was thankful it was summer and he shaved his beard. Her skin had become increasingly sensitive with each subsequent pregnancy.

She rolled her eyes but turned to kiss her husband. “You have to say that because you’re the one who made me this way. Will you go check on Vi and the boys?”

Peeta held out his arm to help Delly to her seat at the picnic table. She stretched her legs out along the bench and kicked her sandals off. “Oh my gosh, it feels so good to be off my feet,” she moaned.

“When are you due, Delly?” Katniss asked, bouncing their eighteen month old son on her knee.

Delly mentally counted the days. “Next week. They’ll induce on Thursday if my water hasn’t broken by then but I will kill someone if it comes to that,” she chuckled. “How’s Asher doing with daycare?”

Katniss groaned. “He’s doing better but only if Rue’s there when we drop him off. Otherwise he’s still a bit of a hellion.”

Delly nodded. “Max and Liam both struggled for a long time but Violet took to strangers almost instantly. Hopefully this one is different.”

“It’s a boy?” Katniss asked, nodding her head toward Delly’s stomach.

“We think so. He’s sitting pretty low. Vi was a lot higher by this point. Either way it’s going to come out with the biggest appetite of them all. Do you think Peeta would notice if I stole one of his cheese buns?”

Katniss laughed and reached into Asher’s bag. “I’ve got you covered.” She handed Delly a plastic container full of the pastries she was craving.

* * *

Thom and Gale were manning the fire pit-turned-grilled when it happened.

“Violet! Max! Liam! It’s time for - oh!” Delly’s eyes widened and she pursed her lips. “Oh crap. Thom!” She started to rise from her seat and groaned as the wetness trickled down her leg. “Thom!”

“What?” He called back over his shoulder.

She waddled over to where he was, far too aware of the squishing of her sandals. “We need to go to the hospital.”

“Now? The burgers are almost finished.”

Delly’s death-glare could rival Medusa’s at that point. “I am so sorry that your child has decided to come out now when the burgers are almost finished.”

Gale took the spatula out of Thom’s hand and gave him a push toward Delly. “Go, man. We’ll bring burgers to the hospital.”

“I swear to God, this is the last one,” she growled at him on the way to the car. “The last fucking child you put into me, Thom.”

“Ten bucks says she’s pregnant again within the year,” Katniss joked as she helped Peeta put plastic down on the passenger side of the car.

Delly’s head snapped to face her. “I will pass this fertility curse onto you if you say one more word, Mellark!”

Katniss’ mouth snapped shut and she took a step away from Peeta’s side, as if just touching him would get her pregnant again.


	54. His Mistress, the Mockingjay

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> erstwhilemagic requested: slave!Peeta, Mistress!Katniss AU  
> This drabble may be deleted if this turns into an actual story...

Being assigned to the Victor’s Village Bath House was the greatest accomplishment a Merchant slave could achieve, so when Peeta Mellark was ‘promoted’ from his previous post as wine server, he moved with pride. His brothers were military slaves but his naturally clean-shaven face and youthful features meant he would be spared from almost certain death on the front lines as the Capitol Empire continued its expansion. 

Merchant slaves were highly prized - their blonde hair and blue eyes were seen as ‘exotic and a pleasant combination to look upon,’ according to his previous mistress. She was an extravagant woman, always wearing the latest fashions and many jewels in her hair, making it appear pink rather than the dark he knew it naturally was. He was trained well in the Abernathy household, Mistress Effie purchased only the finest specimens and was known to discard those who did not mind their manners and learn their place quickly. Master Haymitch cared less what they did, as long as his glass was always full. 

Peeta would miss the evenings when Master Haymitch taught them chess. No doubt that skill would not be necessary for the bathhouses. 

Seneca Crane, the owner of Victor’s Village, was a tall, middle aged Capitol citizen with a thick beard shaved in an intricate flame design. Rumors among the other slaves claimed that he was particularly close to Emperor Coriolanus Snow and earned his position overseeing the bathhouses of the elite due to his willingness to perform some of the more unsavory tasks during battles. No one knew what exactly he had done, but when Master Crane’s small blue-grey eyes landed on you, an unwelcomed shiver ran up your spine.

Peeta had only interacted with the man once - when he was initially brought in and inspected for any bodily abnormalities - and that was as much as he desired.

His duties were simple. As a new slave to the bathhouses, he was assigned to replenishing the waters in the  _Hararet_ , an ancient name for the hot room. Every morning, he and the others would clean the gold-plated, bejeweled basins and fill them with fresh water from the fountain in back. Throughout the day, between uses, he’d relearn and refill each of the seventy-five basins. At the end of each day he’d empty the basins, eat whatever the Masters felt he earned for his supper, and fall asleep, bone tired and sore, ready to repeat it the next day. 

The work was hard and his entire body ached every second, but he dared not complain. Because everyday, as they were cleaning the basins at the end of the night, she came in. 

Katniss Everdeen was notorious throughout the Capitol Empire for her sharp shooting ability. She had taken down many an enemy with a single arrow straight through the eye. Second to her warrior status was her desirability as a woman. She rarely smiled, was nothing particularly spectacular from a physical standpoint, but there was something about her that made everyone stop and stare as she passed by. 

For Peeta, it wasn’t just her firm body or raven hair that was always in a side braid or even her dusky olive skin that was the epitome of the true Empire citizen. He fell first for her voice. Whenever she came in and soaked in the tub, she would begin to hum a song that he couldn’t recognize but instantly became hypnotized by. But it was when she opened her mouth and actually sang the words to that song that he nearly dropped his buckets of water on the floor. 

He was a total goner. 

And every night he looked forward to her visit.

* * *

There was no promotion within the bathhouse unless a slave above you was released or died, a rare occurrence for either option, but luck would have it one day when Peeta was called from his duties in the _Hararet_  by one of the friendlier female guards, Purina. 

“They say you worked in a bakery before,” she commented as they made their way to the back offices of the Masters. “Be sure to remind them of your skills.”

He gulped and nodded, unsure why that would be important for work in a bathhouse. But if Purina made a point to mention it, he’d be sure to follow her advice. In the Master’s office, he was informed of a new position as a massager that had recently become available. 

“You are strong,” Master Cray said offhandedly. “I hate to see the _Hararet_ lose you but we need to fill the position.”

“Yes, Master,” Peeta answered. “I…I worked in a bakery. I…I can work well with my hands.”

Master Cray nodded. “You start today.”

Working as a massager was a completely different experience than his time in the  _Hararet_. His body hurt less and he found that the pain in his arms was the familiar pain from his life before being captured and sold into slavery. He made a game some days, trying to determine which types of bread would best match each client. Massage, scrub, wash with cold water, repeat for each client.

* * *

Peeta was finishing with his last client when he heard her singing from her basin. 

With his new position came new rules, including not being allowed to be in the same room as a female client. But he was drawn to her voice, like the sailors to the mermaids in the stories his father used to tell him as a child. He stood in the doorway that led between the two rooms and watched her. As was traditional, she was completely naked save for the strips of cloth that shielded her lower region. Her hair was in it’s trademark braid, but her eyes were closed and her mouth turned up in a rare smile. 

“Are you, are you  
Coming to the tree  
Where I told you to run, so we’d both be free  
Strange things did happen here  
No stranger would it be  
If we met at midnight in the hanging tree.”

Peeta could make out most of the song thanks the Capitolian he was taught in the Abernathy residence, but he had never heard the song itself. It was a somber tune, like one they used to use during funerals back home, but did not make him feel as he did during funerals. Instead, it made him feel hopeful, like it was meant for a long lost love.

“Are you, are you  
Coming to the tree  
Wear a necklace of rope, side by side with me  
Strange things did happen here  
No stranger would it be  
If we met at midnight in the hanging tree.”

It brought back the memories of his enslavement, when the Capitol militants connected the newly enslaved Merchants with ropes around their necks, hands, and ankles to prevent them from running away. Peeta rubbed his neck, thankful the burns and marks from his shackles weren’t nearly as bad as others’ had been. Mistress Effie took care to rub it with salves as soon as she purchased him, so there were only a few deep marks on his wrists that were unable to be completely removed. Anytime she saw them, Mistress Effie would look upon him so sadly. 

_“Such a terrible way to blemish such a beauty,” she would say, rubbing her forefinger gently over his inner wrists._

She continued to sing as she let the warm waters prepare her for her massage. He watched with jealousy as her personal massager, a girl with skin far darker than any true Capitol citizen’s, prepared her table, laying out the crisp white linen and the various scrub brushes that would exfoliate and brighten Katniss’ skin. He could tell by the bottle that Katniss did not use the traditional rose-scented lotion, and he imagined it would be something more natural, like the expensive sandalwood he had seen in the supply room, or even his personal favorite, vanilla.

“Mistress Everdeen,” the slave said quietly, making sure to stay the required five feet from her basin. “Your take is ready.”

Katniss looked up at the girl with a soft smile. “Thank you, Rue. Do you mind?”

Rue took a few steps forward. “Of course, Mistress.”

Slaves were not allowed to touch their masters, or any high ranking Capitol citizen, without their direct consent. In his time at the bathhouse, he had only seen a handful of slaves help a client from the basin and even then they were old and frail. To see Rue assist Katniss shocked Peeta. Katniss was the picture of strength and virility. She was about Peeta’s age, not even 20 years old, and as fit as any soldier. As Katniss held tightly onto the edge of the basin, Rue wrapped her tiny arms around her and hosted her up.

The only times Peeta saw Katniss’ full body was when she was in her body armor. Without it, he realized why she needed so much assistance. Her skin was covered in scars and burns. Rue made sure to stay on Katniss’ left side, as she had a particularly nasty bruise covering the entirely of her ribs on the right side. Physically fit but clearly battle scarred. 

Rue spotted him first; her eyes went wide with fear and she motioned for him to leave. The movement jostled just Katniss enough for her to look down at the slave, then follow Rue’s eye line directly at Peeta. He froze in place, unable to tear his eyes from hers. He has heard about her grey eyes, how they would latch onto her enemies right before she took them out, blazing like storm clouds. And if you ever saw them like that, up close and personal, it was too late.

He didn’t see any of that. He saw shock, confusion, pain. Radiance. Beyond the scowl that furrowed her eyebrows and the way her lips turned down into her infamous frown, he saw what had to be the most beautiful woman in the world. And if was released for this, sent into exile to wander until the end of his days, he knew he could die happy having seen her face so closely.

Peeta fretted for days about his status, but nothing seemed to come off it. Katniss did not come in during that time but he still made sure to be gone long before she normally did, just in case. 

* * *

“Miss Everdeen! You know you cannot-”  
  
“Do not presume to instruct me, Cray,” she snapped back.

Peeta froze as he heard her voice in the middle of the day, so close to his massage room. He has just finished with a client and was cleaning up when she barged into the room, Master Cray on her heels. The time that had passed was enough to bring out her legendary fury and Peeta instinctively backed away from her. She slammed the privacy door in Master Cray’s face and pounced on Peeta like a lynx on its prey. She pinned him against the wall with her forearm pressed firmly against his trachea.

“You’re the slave who was staring at me the other night.” She snarled.  

It was all he could do to nod.

“Did you get a good look? Impressed by the Mockingjay as no man has seen her before?”

He gulped. There was no way to answer her with just a nod or shake without getting in trouble. Truthfully, while he had seen her naked and found her body attractive, it wasn’t his intent. Not did he let his eyes linger on anything but her face. 

She stared at him, searching his eyes and face for an answer of some kind before releasing him. 

He let out a choked breath and brought his hands up to his neck. “Thank you, Mistress,” he gasped with a strangled breath. 

Her lip curled in disgust at his use of the title. “I know you.”

Peeta shook his head, certain he had never met Katniss before. He would have remembered. “I do not believe so, Mistress.”

“Yes,” she corrected him, bringing her hand to his chin and raising his face to her level. “I know your face. What did your family do before you were enslaved?”

Up close her eyes were even more beautiful than he imagined, especially when he didn’t fear for his life. “We were bakers, in District 12.”

He watched as her entire face changed with the information. She dropped her hand from his face and backed away. “You’d do well to remember your training, Slave,” she said in a quiet voice before opening the door and leaving as quickly as she arrived.

Peeta held tightly onto the edge of the counter to prevent his legs from buckling out underneath him. He was completely shaken by what just transpired, not even sure if it had actually happened or was just a figment of his imagination. The rest of the day passed by in a blur, with Peeta being unable to shake the feeling of unease that coursed through his body. It took everything in him not to tremble anytime the buzzer sounded announcing another client.

“Slave!” Master Cray stomped into Peeta’s room as he was finishing up for the night.

He instantly lowered his head. “Yes, Master Cray?”

“Pack up your things. You’ve been released from your work here.”

His stomach sank. Katniss had turned him in for his improper behavior a week ago. Being released from your post meant almost certain death; it indicated that a slave was unfit and no one other household was likely to take you in. He might be lucky to find work in one of the brothels, though he wondered if his life would be worth living if it meant his body being abused by the women and men who were known to frequent it. Men like Master Cray, if the rumors were to be believed.

Peeta nodded and almost got to the shared slaves quarters before the tears began to pour. Often the slaves were warned to hold their emotions in check, to never let the Masters know when they were upset or hurt or angry. It only led to more problems. But what did he care if Master Cray, or any of the other slaves for that matter, saw him cry? He would likely never see them again unless they too were released. And that was if he survived long enough.

Slaves did not have many possessions, so it took only a few minutes for him to pack what little he had into the burlap bag Mistress Effie made sure he had when he left the Abernathy residence. He silently followed Master Cray through the back halls of the bathhouse to the slave entrance, the same one he came through on his first day.

Master Cray led him out the door where he was instantly surrounded by armed guards, who escorted him. Peeta thought it was quite extreme, to have so many guards for one pathetic slave, but they must have had cause to worry in the past. As they reached the extravagant homes of the Capitol elite, he wondered why they were bringing him here as opposed to the more barren edge of town where he would have less chance of escape.

“Release him,” a familiar female voice called to the guards. They obeyed and began their return to the village. The woman silently walked down the path to where Peeta was left standing alone, waiting for a command. “Look at me, Slave.”

Peeta raised his head and was face-to-face with Katniss Everdeen again. She was in her armor, a black uniform that was both utilitarian and a work of ark. It was designed to be iconic, to strike fear into whoever saw it on the battlefield, but also to protect the wearer and allow her maximum range of motion to shoot arrows or engage in hand-to-hand combat. He knew that outfit well and couldn’t believe how different she looked in it. She was hard. A warrior. Not at all like the woman who used to sing to herself in the bathhouse.

“Do you know why you are here?”

“No, Mistress.”

“I bought you from Seneca Crane. You cost me quite a lot, Slave.”

He nodded. “Thank you, Mistress. I will not disappoint you. I was trained in the Abernathy residence, by Mistress Effie and Master Haymitch.”

A smirk played on her lips. “You will find that Effie Trinket-Abernathy and I have very little in common.”

“Yes, Mistress. Um, may I ask a question of you?”

Katniss quirked an eyebrow at him, but nodded her assent.

“Why did you purchase me? You are known for not owning any slaves and I…I dishonored you.”

Her eyes narrowed at him. “What is your name, Slave?”

“Peeta, Mistress. Peeta Mellark.”

“Another thing you will discover about me, Peeta Mellark of the Bakery in District 12, is that I do not do well with charity and I always pay my debts. Any more questions?”

“No, Mistress.”

She turned and motioned for him to follow her. “Come along, then.”


	55. Tall, Dark, and Gloomy - Gadge (Madge x Gale)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aquarpisc requested: Gadge, “I’m gonna be honest with you. I’m really horny, and you’re really hot. Can we fuck? Like, now?”

He wasn’t even sure why he agreed to come to this party. Katniss invited him but didn’t stay by his side once she saw Peeta fucking Mellark show up. To be fair, Gale didn’t hate Peeta, but that was only because he made Katniss happier than he had ever seen her. He had no idea what that Merchant boy had done to her but since she threatened to use him for target practice if he interfered, he didn’t bother trying to figure them out. He needed the wrath of Katniss Everdeen like he needed a hole in the head.

But she was still his best friend so when she asked him to go to her first college party with her, just in case, he went. Despite not going to college himself, he wound up knowing more people at the party than he expected. Turns out when a ton of kids from a small town go to the same school, they bring along their high-school friends. Which in this case, included him.

Most of the stags stayed in the kitchen, trying to blend into the walls so no one noticed they didn’t know anyone else. But Gale was not just any old stag, he was fine being by himself, thank you very much. And besides, there weren’t any hot college chicks in the kitchen and if he was going to spend the evening at this party, he was going to spend it in the company of a girl.

“Gale!” He heard Katniss calling to him from the other side of the room. “Beer pong?”

He grinned. He and Katniss were beer pong champs, since they spent too many bored hours trying to throw berries into ant hills in the forest behind their houses. “Team Seam!” He called, giving her a high five. “Sorry, Mellark, but you can’t come between us on this.”

Katniss gave Peeta a kiss on the cheek which was probably meant to appease him, but it didn’t stop the pathetic pout on his face. It made her laugh and she gave him another kiss, which elicited a fake gag from Gale. Katniss and Peeta both flipped him off.

“Come on, lovebirds!” A female voice called out. Gale looked across the table at the petite blonde who was bouncing the ping pong ball back and forth between her hands. With her perfectly curled hair and flawless makeup, she didn’t look like she belonged at a house party, let alone at the beer pong table at one. “Peety, which side do you want?”

He chose to stand on the same side as Katniss, so the blonde girl made her way over to Gale. “I’m Madge,” she said, smiling at him with a line of straight, white teeth, framed by a deep red lipstick.

“Gale,” he answered. “How do you know ‘Peety’ over there?”

“We’re in class together. You’re Katniss’ friend, right?” She eyed him up and down and raised her eyebrows. “Ready to get your ass kicked?”

“Bring it, Blondie. Side drinks.”

He would never admit it out loud, but Peeta and Madge were both surprisingly good. Not quite at the level of Katniss and Gale, who had years of hand-eye-coordination training, but still good. Good enough that even as Gale sunk his winning ping pong ball, Madge called for a rematch as she chugged the remaining of her beer. “You sure about that?” He asked with a sly grin. She was already getting louder and he caught just a hint of slur in her speech.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Scared?”

“Should we switch teams?” Katniss asked.

At the same time, Madge and Gale both shouted “No!” which made Peeta cock an eyebrow at them. “Let’s just play,” Gale said, sending the extra ball to the other side. “You start, Mellark.”

“What the hell?” Gale asked as Madge got one in on a bounce that somehow Katniss hadn’t blocked in time.

“I believe that’s a double drink,” she teased, sliding two of the cups toward him.

He glared at her, but couldn’t stop the smirk that played on his lips as he drank his double penalty. “Really, Katniss should be drinking this since she sucks at defense.”

“Fuck you, Gale. You couldn’t finger Peeta’s ball last round.” The three looked at her until the realization of what she said hit her and turned bright red and buried her face in Peeta’s shoulder. “You know that’s not what I meant!”

“It’s okay, hon,” he reassured her, but he made the ‘let’s not let her drink anymore, k?’ face. Katniss had zero tolerance which was still hilarious in Gale’s mind.

“I’ll take her drinks,” Gale offered to a gracious Peeta. “But that means you have to drive me home, too, Mellark.”

“Deal. Madge, you go again, right?”

Madge’s smile had taken a dangerous turn. She reminded Gale of a femme fatale - the kind of woman who would fuck you and then kill you for fun. And he suddenly found that incredibly sexy. And incredibly distracting. His shots lost their finesse. Then he missed the cups all together. All he could focus on was that damn Madge and her damn lipstick and what it would look like staining his skin and…damnit!

“And I believe that means we win,” Madge said with a triumphant smile as Peeta sunk the winning ball.

His brain was already slightly fuzzy, so he took the last cup of beer and poured half into another glass. “Split?”

She rolled her eyes but wrapped her hand around his and pulled the cup to her lips, drinking her half. “Thanks for the games, guys!” She announced with a grin and bounded off into the crowd.

“Holy fuck,” Gale sighed, leaning against the table.

Peeta and Katniss came up to his side, both wearing shit-eating grins. “She’s quite the character, isn’t she?” Peeta asked.

Gale could only nod as she disappeared into the sea of blondes. “She’s something.”

“It’s still hard to believe she’s the mayor’s daughter,” Katniss mentioned. “And the nicest fucking girl in the world besides Delly Cartwright.” She leaned her head against Peeta’s shoulder. “You should get her number, Gale. She seemed into you.”

“Yeah right,” he scoffed.  _Like a girl like her would be interested in a loser like me._ Nothing like a little alcohol and an unattainable girl to make him feel like shit. “I’m going to get another beer. Don’t leave without me,” he pointed at Peeta who nodded.

He found an empty spot on the stairs where he could drink in relative peace and watch the crowd. There was something enjoyable about watching people make fools of themselves but have fun doing it. Girls who didn’t normally danced were showing off their moves. Boys grew braver and braver as the night wore on - and they consumed more alcohol.

“Hey there, Tall, Dark, and Gloomy.”

He looked up to see Madge standing in front of him with a drink in one hand and that dangerous grin on her face. He patted the spot next to him and she plopped down. “Well look who showed up.”

“You’re so lucky,” she winked. “You come to these parties a lot?”

Gale shook his head. “Nope, this is the first one. Katniss asked me to come with her so here I am.”

“Hmm,” Madge shrugged one shoulder. “Well, you should come to more. I’d like to have a good beer pong partner. Especially one who can hold his beer so well.”

“I’ll see what I can do”

She stared at him for a moment before leaning over and in a low voice, she whispered, “Look, I’m going to be honest with you. I’m really horny and you’re really hot.” She leaned back and looked up at him.

He licked his lips and set his drink down. He pulled out his phone and typed out a message to Peeta. Standing up, he offered her his hand. “Can we fuck? Like, now?”


	56. Introduction to Human Sexuality

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> fanficallergy requested: Katniss and Peeta and "Introduction to Human Sexuality" as Taught by TAs Johanna Mason and Finnick Odair.

“Stupid general studies requirements making me take stupid Intro to Human Sexuality so I can get my stupid degree,” Katniss muttered, trudging into the social sciences building. It was stupid that she had to even take the class since her concentration in biology was focused on plant life, not human life. She wasn’t even all that interested in her own human sexuality, let alone paying to take a class about it. It would probably end up being some middle-aged man who would rehash everything they learned in Human Growth and Development in high school. Or worse, a middle-aged man talking about…sex. She shuddered at the thought. **  
**

When she walked into the auditorium, the first thing she noticed were place cards set on desks in groups of two. Assigned seating? What was this, elementary school? She watched as some other students loitered around, talking with their friends and finding their seats. “Great,” she huffed, searching through the clusters of seats for hers. She quickly noticed that the pairings were one male and one female. Madge, her roommate, would probably have launched into a rant about how hetero-normative it was to match up men and women exclusively instead of letting people pick their partner, but Katniss was too annoyed to think too hard about it.

She frowned when she saw her name place right in the front row. As if this class couldn’t be worse, now she would be directly in the eye-line of this ‘Professor A. Coin.’ She huffed and slipped into her seat, resting her head on her desk. It was only a 90 minute class. She could get through this. “Stupid general studies requirement.”

The noise in the room started to die down, indicating that the class was about to start. She raised her head and looked at the seat next to her, which was still empty. She wasn’t sure if she should be relieved that at least she wouldn’t be sitting next to some creepy perv who would bother her the entire time, or annoyed that now she’d be doing all the work that was clearly meant for two people by herself. She checked her watch - 2:18 - the guy had another two minutes to show up before he would be penalized, according to the syllabus rules about attendance and punctuality that had been emailed to all of them a week ago.

She smirked when she looked up front and there still was no professor. “So much for punctuality being the height of politeness,” she sighed.

At exactly 2:20pm, doors down by the front of the auditorium opened and out walked an older woman with perfectly coiffed grey hair, followed by two younger adults who Katniss assumed were the TA’s for the class. Just the presence of that woman made everyone in the class quiet instantly and sit forward. Her sensible heels clicked against the floor as she walked over to the podium and slipped on her glasses.

“Good afternoon,” her voice clipped in a no-nonsense tone. “This is Introduction to Human Sexuality, I am Professor Coin. I have a PhD in anthropology and as such, you will only refer to me as ‘Professor’ or ‘Dr’ but nothing else, do you all understand?” She waited as the stunned class nodded sporadically. “Good. These are your TAs for the class, Johanna Mason and Finnick Odair. They are both third year PhD students will be your primary instructors for the course. I assume everyone has looked over the syllabus? Particularly the section on attendance?” Her voice is directed toward the student who just entered the classroom and was trying to quietly sneak in unnoticed. Trying being the operative term because Katniss could feel his heavy footsteps from her spot.

“Ah, um, sorry.”

“Take your seat, Mr. Mellark.” Professor Coin snapped, nodding her head to the front of the room where the one empty seat was left.

Katniss closed her eyes. Great, she was paired up with the kid who was already on the professor’s bad side. No way this wouldn’t end up biting them both in the ass. The boy sat down and Katniss’ senses were instantly overtaken by a mix of cinnamon and paint. She glanced over and noticed his hands as he pulled his syllabus and notebook out. His nails were trimmed down but still had flecks of color lodged under them. His arm hair was golden and soft, which was an odd juxtaposition since his actual arms were sculpted and muscular. She looked up and was caught staring at him; his light blue eyes with the darker blue ring along the outside, framed by impossibly long, blonde eyelashes.

“I’m Peeta,” he whispered to her with a smile that made her flush.

“Katniss,” she mumbled back, focusing back down at her syllabus, vaguely listening to what Professor Coin was saying and definitely trying to ignore the way the boy next to her looked. And smelled.

“And now, I will hand you over to your TAs for the rest of the class.”  With that, Professor Coin slid her glasses off and exited out the same door she entered through not even 15 minutes prior.

Johanna Mason and Finnick Odair waited until the door was fully shut before breaking out their Cheshire grins. “Great,” Finnick said, clapping his hands together, completely shifting the mood in the class. “So, like Alma said, this is Introduction to Human Sexuality. I know most of you have probably heard that this is boring and dry and whatever, but none of you have had us,” he indicated to Johanna, “before. And frankly, if we have to be here teaching you, we might as well have fun ourselves. Right, Johanna?”

Johanna nodded and narrowed her eyes, making her look like a predator about to attack. “Exactly. One of the main goals in this class is facilitate open and honest communication about sexuality, which can’t be accomplished unless you feel comfortable expressing yourselves in class openly and honestly. Part of that is on you guys to maintain confidentiality of what happens in here but also on us to show that we are comfortable to talk about any aspect of this class with you.” She looked over at Finnick and smirked.

There was a collective slack jaw moment when Johanna pulled her dress off, leaving her standing bare-chested in front of the class in just her panties. Finnick followed shortly after, revealing his tanned and toned body clad only in Calvin Klein briefs that hugged everything he had to offer. “How many of you find this distracting?” He asked, waggling his eyebrows suggestively. “With your partner, discuss your thoughts and feelings about this. If you’re uncomfortable, talk about why you’re uncomfortable. Where do your feelings on nudity, or partial nudity, come from?”

Katniss could swear she heard a few girls literally swoon in the back of the class. She was too busy trying to avert her eyes from the bare breasts that were only a few feet in front of her. She glanced over at Peeta and couldn’t believe at how openly he was looking at his TA’s tits. “What are you doing?” She hissed at him.

“What?” He asked quietly, not wanting to draw more attention to them.

“You’re staring!”

“Yeah?” He shrugged. “They’re just breasts, Katniss. I’ve seen plenty.”

Her mouth flopped open, at a total loss for words at his response. She turned back toward the front, unable to process everything that was happening in her life. Why was she surprised that he had seen breasts before? Almost everyone her age had, they weren’t all like her in that regard. She wasn’t prudish, there were just always too many other things going on as far as boys were concerned. Its not like she didn’t notice attractive men or have…those…feelings sometimes, but it hadn’t happened yet and she didn’t care as much as other people seemed to. She supposed it didn’t help much that she wasn’t exactly a likable and fun person to be around most of the time. According to Madge, her resting bitch face game was particularly strong. Whatever the hell that meant.

And why did she even care that he had seen breasts before? They had literally just met and all she knew about him was his name and that he had seen breasts so many times that their instructor stripping down in front of them elicited no response. The spark of jealousy that was lit in her belly made absolutely no sense.

Thankfully, Johanna and Finnick redressed and stayed dressed for the rest of the class. They gave a more detailed overview of what the class would entail and what was expected of the students. They also made sure to announce that if, at any time, someone didn’t feel comfortable with their paired partner, to let them know and they’d figure out a way to handle it. “You better like your partner,” Johanna warned, “because this is an intense, intimate course and there’s no reason to make it worse by working with and disclosing information to someone you’d be willing to kill to survive.”

It was supposed to be a joke. But Katniss seriously wondered if it would be worth it to gouge out Peeta Mellark’s eyes so she wouldn’t notice the way he focused them so intently on their female TA.

* * *

The TAs were dressed professionally for the following classes, completely covered with no indication that they were planning on revealing anything. She found the lectures to be more interesting than she suspected, learning about the history of sexuality and how it’s portrayed in other cultures. Peeta was still ‘the boy who couldn’t look away from Johanna’s boobs’ in her mind, but he turned out to be a pretty good partner, as well. He even started bringing her snacks after her stomach let out an unholy grumble one class period. They walked out of class together after that and she even caught herself waiting for him to rush up at the last minute from his art building across campus.

“You’re an art major?” She asked, pointing out the specks of paint that littered his forearms one class.

He shook his head. “Well, it’s my unofficial major. Technically, I’m supposed to be getting a degree in business but I hate everything about it. So I take art classes to save my sanity. What about you?”

“Biology,” she answered, “with an emphasis in Botany. I like plants more than people.”

His laugh made her smile. “That’s because most people are terrible. And only motivated to create more people.” He glanced up at the topic of the day, Motivations for Sexuality.

“There’s too many people on this Earth,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“We need a new plague,” they finished at the same time.

Peeta laughed loudly. “Good ol’ Dwight Schrute. Now there was a poster child for Human Sexaulity.”

Katniss snorted. “Or lack thereof, maybe.”

“I don’t know, Katniss, I think you should do your final project about him. I bet Finnick would approve it. He seems like an Office fan.”

She groaned. The final project was supposed to be a culmination of everything they learned, and that was it. There were no other rules about the format, the medium, the length, the topic, nothing. It was whatever they wanted that showed what they learned about human sexuality in a creative way. Johanna said the only project they wouldn’t accept was a live demonstration, which made a few of the idiot boys in the back of the room groan obnoxiously. It’s not like they had actually planned on doing that anyway.

“I haven’t even started thinking about that yet. What are you doing?”

“I’ve got a painting in the works. It won’t be anything all that great but it’s better than baking penis cookies or something,” he laughed.

She laughed with him but strongly considered getting Madge to help her make said penis cookies. She could probably also make boob ones with some creative cookie cutters. Although with her luck she’d burn them and end up with STD cookies. And even though those would work, something about eating a diseased cookie just didn’t sit well with her. She sighed. This final project was worth a large portion of their grade and even though Finnick assured them that the only way to fail it was to either not turn anything in or to do something so horribly bad that there was no way it showed the student was even in class all semester.

After class one day, Peeta told her more about his father’s bakery, how he knew he was old enough to help out when his father woke him up early to let him start the fires in the old wood-burning ovens they used.

“I remember that day so vividly. We had to go out and collect the wood. Not just the big logs, but the kindling too, the little stuff that served as the spark for the real fire. So we built up the base and my dad handed me the box of matches to light. I was so mad because the first one didn’t work and the second one didn’t work and the third one didn’t work. But he put his arm around me and said ‘sometimes you have to be patient and it’ll come.’ And sure enough. Man that first fire…it was so amazing. I know that sounds so stupid because I’ve built a ton of fires since but that first one will always be ingrained in my memory, you know? It was special.”

Katniss nodded, unable to tear her eyes off of him as he described it. He was so excited, so joyful. And just like that, she realized what she could do for her final project. The idea came upon her so quickly that she didn’t know what else to do but to hug him and thank him repeatedly.

She left him in a daze with a confused, yet welcomed, smile on his face.

* * *

They took their final the week before the end of the semester so they could use the extended class period to go around and look at what everyone did for their final project. Katniss got to the class early, since her project required some set up. She found her assigned spot in the room (man, these TAs were fans of assigned seating) and began to slowly pull all her materials out of her hunting bag. She worked quickly to recreate one of the many campfires she had built throughout her life, making sure to show the kindling and larger firewood within the pyramid structure. On the wall behind her project, she hung up pictures of the campfire at different stages - kindling, twigs, logs, fire, and doused. She would have liked to have actually lit the fire, but indoor flames were generally frowned upon.

She searched around for Peeta, but he was no where to be seen. His space, across the room from hers, was still bare. She started to get worried, but then Johanna and Finnick announced that half the class would stay at their spots and the other would get to walk around, then they would switch, so she had to stay put.

“Well, well, well. What do we have here, Kitty Kat?” Finnick asked, coming up and standing right in front of her project.

Katniss glared at her TA, who had taken an uncomfortable liking to her and given her the most obnoxious nickname. But he was harmless enough, she supposed, even charming and fun at times.

“Well, I thought about sexuality being a lot like a fire,” she started, explaining how kindling was like the initial spark of neurotransmitters and hormones that fire when you first see a person you’re attracted to, the twigs were the buildup, and the logs were the actual act. Then, once the fire has burned you, you’re in the plateau stage but there are sometimes embers that linger, indicating that the cycle can be repeated if the kindling and twigs catch again. “And the matches,” she concluded, “are the individual. Fires can start randomly through lightening or very dry seasons, but striking a match is a deliberate choice.”

Finnick nodded. “I’m impressed, Katniss. And not just at your ability to talk about the sexual cycle since I remember you turning a particular shade of red that day.” He gave her a reassuring grin. “I wonder, what else might the fire represent other than the physical sexual cycle?”

She pursed her lips, trying to figure out what he was referring to. From the corner of her eye, she spotted Peeta walking in late, with a large canvas under his arm. She thought back to his story, the one that inspired her idea. “A relationship,” she said slowly. “The kindling would be little things that start the spark of interest, but you need more. You need the twigs to even hope to get the logs burning. And sometimes it doesn’t work with the first match, or the second, or the third, but if you’re patient and you’ve got the right combination and setup, you’ve…got a relationship?” She finished hesitantly because even as she said it, it sounded stupid.

“Works for me. Be careful with those matches, Katniss,” he winked. “Really good job.”

She survived the first half of the class, since there were only two people who bothered asking her questions - Johanna and Peeta. And even Peeta didn’t ask questions so much as keep her company, which she appreciated. Most of the students didn’t understand her project, but even Johanna Mason told her it was creative.

When it was time to switch, she told Peeta she’d be at his project as soon as she got hers put back away. It seemed, however, like his was the star of the class because by the time she made it over to him, there was a large crowd around him, oohing and aahing. When she came up behind them, a few of the girls looked at her with big eyes and knowing smiles, letting her pass through them to the front.

The canvas was the painting Peeta talked about and it took her breath away. He had shown her some of his doodles in class, but she hadn’t ever gotten to see his actual paintings. This one was amazing, the way the colors perfectly balanced one another, the use of lines and textures. The woman he painted looked so lifelike and beautiful. With her olive skin and piercing grey eyes and…raven braid over her shoulder. She was all over the canvas if you looked closely enough, all from different perspectives, some more abstract but others painfully clear. It was sensual, as if he literally layered emotions onto the canvas instead of paint.

“Is that…is that me?” She asked quietly, reaching her hand out to brush the stray piece of hair the fell along the main woman’s forehead. The same strand that often fell in her own eyes.

If anyone in the room made noise, she didn’t notice. All she heard was herself. And Peeta. “Do you like it?”

She shook her head. “It’s a terrible likeness. I don’t look like that.”

“You do to me.” She looked away from the painting and into his hopeful eyes. “From that first day of class, this is the you I’ve seen.”

“Really?” She asked, unable to believe that anyone would look at her like that, would see her as desirable.

“Really,” he answered, reaching out for her hand. She gladly accepted it, lacing their fingers together and grinning as he pulled her to his side.

“Alright, Loverboy,” Johanna Mason’s voice cut through the fog. “Even though you’ve been eye-fucking Brainless over here all semester and she’s only just now figuring it out, explain your project.”


	57. You Know Nothing, Peeta Mellark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> otrascosasseries requested: Everlark meeting at GOT exhibition

“Prim, you have to calm down and quit running!” Katniss hissed at her younger sister, nervously glancing around at the hoard of people in the convention hall.

“I am not Prim,” she answered, turning toward her sister and flipping her hair over her shoulder. “I am Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, the First of Her Name, the Unburnt, Queen of Meereen, Queen of the Andals and the Rhoynar, and the First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains, and Mother of Dragons.”

Katniss was impressed that her sister not only memorized Daenerys’ full name but that she could recite it in Emilia Clarke’s accent. She was just glad she had been able to convince Prim that the Game of Thrones exhibition was NOT the same as comic con and people did NOT dress up in cosplay for it. Prim settled for a flowing blue dress, braided hair like her favorite character and the dragon necklace Katniss got her for Christmas last year. Katniss paled in comparison, in just jeans and her Tyrion Lannister ‘F*ck the King’ shirt. Crass, yes, but she had a deep spiritual relationship with the imp. And besides. Fuck King Joffrey. The little shit. “Whatever you say, Dany,” Katniss said, wrapping her arm around her sister’s shoulders. “Where do you want to start? Lands of Always Winter and head south? Or do you want to start South in Dorne?”

When news hit of the exhibition of the hit HBO show making a rare tour of Panem put everyone on high alert. This was the first year it was crossing the Atlantic and leaving it’s motherland in Europe, so it was no surprise that the convention center was packed full of people from all over the country waiting to see elements of their favorite show up close and personal. Many were dressed like Katniss, with one or two visible references, while a small handful took the Prim route and were clearly impersonating their favorite character. It was a strange mix of colors and noises, but Katniss was secretly just as excited as everyone else.

“I don’t care,” Prim said, “let’s just see it all!”

Walking through the different areas of Westeros and Essos was like reliving all the pivotal moments in the show. Jon Snow becoming the 998th Commander of the Night’s Watch. Arya traveling to Braavos. Tyrion murdering his father, concluding that Lannisters don’t actually shit gold. Joffrey being poisoned. Ned Stark being beheaded. When they reached The Crossing, Katniss felt her eyes begin to water - she had been rooting for the true King of the North.

“Katniss!” Prim called to her from the replica Iron Throne. “Katniss, we can sit on the Throne!”

Sure enough, a line had formed for a photo-op as ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. It would take forever from the looks of the line, but there was no way Prim would let Katniss forget it if they didn’t take advantage of this opportunity. She sighed and nodded, prompting Prim to run to the end of the line and stand with her legs just wide enough to indicate that she was saving a spot. She may have been little, but she could take up space if she really wanted to.

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! Rue is never going to believe this!” Prim excitedly chattered as they slowly made their way closer to the throne. “You have your phone right? Because I have to send it to everyone. I’ve already posted about it on Facebook and Rory is steaming mad! Serves him right for teasing me about this yesterday. Can you believe I’m going to get to sit on the Iron Throne? I’ll be the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms,” she ended with a flourish, in her haughty Daenerys voice.

“And what would that make me?” Katniss asked, mimicking the accents from the show as best as she could.

Prim laughed and looped her arm through Katniss’. “You would be my dear sister, of course. And we would find you the most eligible man in all the realm for you.” She winked, which made Katniss laugh and play along.

“The second most, of course. And tell me, dear Queen, does anyone here catch your eye?”

Prim made a big show of searching around the convention center, pausing occasionally as if she were considering certain men. “I believe that one there would produce many a fine heir,” she pointed to a man who easily more wide than he was tall. Her straight face lasted only a second before she burst into a girly giggle. “That was very un-queenly of me, wasn’t it. Besides, we are not searching for me, we are looking for you.”

“Of course, Sister,” Katniss answered, craning her neck. “I just don’t know, though. Perhaps none of these men are worthy of my hand.”

“You have always been so picky,” Prim joked. “Whoever you pick must be of highest importance.”

“Of course.”

“And even more attractive than Jaime Lannister.”

Katniss fanned her face with her hand and gave a dramatic sigh. “No one is more attractive than the Kingslayer.”

Prim waved her off. “We shall find someone.”

Katniss loved the silly games that the girls played together. Despite their tough childhood, Prim was always the little ray of sunshine in Katniss’ gloom and doom life. She found the positive in everything, in everyone, and was the only one who was consistently able to make Katniss smile. She would be heading off to school in the fall, something Katniss was definitely not looking forward to, even with promises of nightly Skype sessions and monthly visits back home. Coming to the exhibition was expensive, but worth every penny, as far as Katniss was concerned.

The line inched forward faster than they expected. No doubt the photographers had a system to keep things moving. As they approached the Throne, they started encountering volunteers who passed out rules and guidelines. No flash photography. One professional photo per person or couple. Leave all bags to the side. Photos can be purchased after the session.

Only those who are worthy may sit upon the Iron Throne.

“What do you think that means?” Prim asked, pointing at the last line on the guidelines.

Katniss shrugged. “Who knows. I doubt it’s anything major.”

As they approached the Throne, they discovered that, in order to be deemed worthy, fans had to answer trivia questions about the show. Most were pretty easy - who was the Lord of Winterfell? What was Sansa’s direwolf’s name? What does Khaleesi mean? Things that even casual watchers of the show could answer. People dressed in costumes were given slightly more difficult questions. Which member of the Night’s Watch is blind? Who was Joffrey Baratheon modeled after? What is the official words of House Lannister?

Prim nervously clutched Katniss’ hand. “Katniss, what if they ask me one of the hard questions? I haven’t read the books! What if they don’t let me take my picture on the Throne?”

“Don’t worry,” Katniss reassured her. “I’m sure they won’t not let you take a picture if you get a question wrong. Besides, we’re getting the picture taken together so I’ll be there to help.”

When it was finally their turn, they walked up in awe. It was more impressive than anything Katniss had imagined it would be. She reached her hand out to touch the tip of one of the swords. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. They are still sharp.”

A voice made her pull her arm back and turn toward the source. “Oh. Right, yeah. Sorry.”

The voice, which belonged to a young man about her age with a camera around his neck, smiled. “It’s okay. It’s a normal reaction, I think. You two ladies think you’re worthy for the Iron Throne?”

Prim nodded nervously. “Yes,” she answered in a quiet voice. “We think we are.”

“Now, now,” the photographer winked. “Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea must be confident if she wishes to rule the Seven Kingdoms. Do you think you’re worthy of the Throne?”

Prim smiled at him. “Yes,” she answered more definitively.

“Excellent. Now, to prove it, you must answer a question about Westeros. Let’s see…” he studied them both, focusing more on Katniss than Prim, before snapping his fingers. “What is Jon Snow’s greatest weakness?”

Prim looked over at Katniss. Had they ever mentioned Jon Snow’s weakness on the show? Robb was a terrible politician, Ned seemed unable to think about the bigger picture, Sansa was too concerned about being a true lady, Arya the complete opposite. But Jon Snow? “Um, he was a bastard?” She asked.

The photographer shook his head. “You get one more chance if your sister can get it right.” He turned his attention to Katniss.

She pursed her lips in thought. As the answer flashed through her mind, she smiled and gave Prim’s hand a confident squeeze. “Jon Snow’s biggest weakness is that he knows nothing.”

The photographer smiled and chuckled. “That is a wonderfully correct answer. Hop on up.” He watched as they shifted so they could both sit on the throne together. Despite how small they both were, the blond girl ended up practically sitting on her sister’s lap. He loved the way they looked together, on the surface they looked so different but upon closer inspection, they shared the same bone structures, the same speckling of freckles, and the same shine in their eyes when they looked at each other. He snapped a few pictures as they got comfortable. When the brunette looked over at him, he felt the air rush out of his lungs. Through his lense, he could see just how beautiful, how radiant she was, with her olive skin contrasted against her raven hair and her storm-grey eyes. “S-s-say Westeros,” he stuttered, taking a few pictures of them in rapid succession.

“Um,” he fumbled around for the tickets for them when he finally pulled his camera down.. “So you, uh, you can take this over to…to, um, to the table on the other side of the convention center in about five or ten minutes. To get…to get your picture.”

“Thanks,” Katniss answered, reaching for the ticket. Their fingers brushed and she felt a spark shoot through her limbs. She flushed and looked down at her feet, suddenly nervous to talk to this photographer who she never really noticed was ridiculously attractive. More-attractive-than-Jaime-Lanister attractive. She hurried Prim along to the table, unable to shake the feeling about him.

When their pictures arrived, Prim let out an excited squeal. As silly as they felt, basically sitting on top of one another, while on the Throne, the picture made it look completely normal, as if that was how people were meant to sit on it. They were looking at one another in the picture, rather than at the camera like all the others, with smiles that Katniss normally only reserved for Prim. It really was a fantastic picture. “Can we get it, Katniss? Please?” Prim asked.

Katniss nodded, not even caring that it was probably a rip off. “Of course,” she answered as she paid for the picture, complete with a fancy Game of Thrones-styled picture holder. “Prim, you know what? We didn’t get one for you to put on facebook!”

Prim shrugged. “That’s okay, Katniss. This is so much better! Thank you! And thank you!” Prim turned her attention to where the photographer had walked near them.

He smiled brightly at her. “You guys like it? I know it was a little different than what most people get, but I liked it better. If you want the others, I can send them to you.”

“Really?” Prim asked, her smile growing even wider. “Oh. My. Gosh, you could do that? Katniss! Give him your email address so he can send them to you!”

Katniss flushed at her sister’s far-too-innocent grin. The photographer pulled out two business cards. He handed one to her and flipped the other over to write her email address with the pen that was behind his ear. “It’s K.Everdeen12 at gmail.”

He nodded and scribbled it down so quickly she wondered if he’d actually be able to read it later on. “Great. I’m Peeta, by the way. I’ll have to send you the pictures from my personal email since they monitor our work email.” He handed her the pen. “Peeta.Mellark.Photography at gmail. I, uh, I can’t wait to hear from you, K. Everdeen.”

“Katniss,” she corrected him. “Katniss Everdeen.”

“Even better.”

* * *

A week after Peeta Mellark sent her the extra copies of the pictures, the two began a friendly, flirty back-and-forth. About a month after that, he finally asked if she’d be interested in maybe going on a sort-of-kind-of date or hangout with him at some point.

_You know nothing, Peeta Mellark. ;)_


	58. The Foulest Tea in Panem

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> anonalece requested: Everlark, “You’re the Only One I Trust to Do This”

Peeta sighed heavily as the bell rang through the bakery. He had just gotten all the day’s dishes loaded into the sink and had suds up to his elbows. It had already been a long day; after rising early to prep the bakery, he had to drop Aries off at school, Henry at daycare, take Buttercup to the vet because somehow he got fleas and the at-home remedies weren’t working, and go back to to the bakery for a double shift. All the while listening for that dreaded bell to ring so he could check in on his wife.

It had been his own dumb idea to install the damn bell in the first place, but it was better than having her actually try to come into the bakery when she was sick or yell from the apartment upstairs. There had been too much yelling in the bakery when he was growing up and he refused to let that continue. Even if it wasn’t angry yelling.

“Dells, I need to go check on her. Cover the register?”

Delly nodded. “Go. Your wife needs you.”

He hung his apron on the peg by the door to the stairs and trudged up toward their apartment above the bakery. He cleaned up some of the toys that the kids left in the living room that he must have missed in his rush this morning.

Knocking on the door to the bedroom, he slowly entered the dark room and made his way over to the bed. He sat on the edge and placed the back of his hand on her forehead. “You rang?”

Katniss groaned in response. “My throat,” she croaked.

“Do you need your medicine?”

“Noooo.”

He ran his hand through her sweaty hair. She very rarely got sick, so when the flu that struck the district hit Katniss hard. Peeta loved his wife but sick Katniss was a needy and pathetic Katniss who couldn’t do anything on her own. “Sweetie, you have to take your medicine if you want your fever to break.”

She shook her head and scrunched her face like Ares did whenever they tried to feed her vegetables.

“So why did you ring the bell?” He asked in his most patient, level-toned voice he could muster. Ever since she got sick it had been like having three children in the house. No wonder his mother hated being in the house when all the boys were home. Well...he was pretty sure that wasn’t the only reason she hated being in the house but they clearly didn’t help.

She ran her hand over her eyes. “My throaaaat,” she whined. “It hurts.”

“That’s why you have your cough syrup,” he reminded her, even though he was sure it tasted worst than it smelled and it smelled rancid.

“Tea?” She pleaded. “Please?”

Peeta sighed. Her mother used to make an herbal tea for the girls when they were sick. It worked wonders but made the entire apartment stink while it was brewing, which meant the stench would seep down into the bakery. “I can ask Ruby at the apothecary to make you some,” he offered. Ruby was a second- or third- or maybe even fourth-cousin of Katniss’ mom so she probably knew the recipe just as well.

She reached for his hand. “Please, Peeta? You’re the only one I trust to do this.”

He squeezed her hand and smiled down at his sick wife. “You are so lucky I love you.” He kissed her forehead. “Let me go warn Delly downstairs real quick.”

 

 


	59. Nervous Flier

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> katnissdoesnotfollowback requested: Everlark, "have I entered an alternative reality or did you really just crack a smile for me?"

“Attention passengers. Our flight today from Huntington Tri-State Airport to LAX will be full, so we ask that all incoming passengers take the first available seat. Please be sure to only store large carry-on bags in the overhead compartments so we have space for everyone’s luggage. Thank you.”

Katniss flipped her braid over her shoulder and sighed, wishing she had checked into her flight earlier so she could have at least gotten an aisle seat for this 5+ hour flight, rather than getting stuck in the middle between who knows who. She spotted an empty middle seat between two people who already had the window shade drawn and eyes closed. She bounced on her toes, willing the handful of passengers in front of her to just _sit down already_ so she could snag that seat.

Of course the guy in front of her, who had two pieces of carry-on that she personally questioned the appropriate size of, took it first. “Damn it,” she muttered, scanning for the next available spot.

“Miss? There’s a seat right here,” the too-friendly stewardess said, nodding to a seat between an older man leaning against the window and a young, blond man who looked like he’d rather be anywhere else.

She grimaced, sliding past the nervous blond and plopping into the middle seat. She stuffed her backpack under the seat and buckled in, thankful that at least both of the men around her smelled clean enough. She plugged her headphones into her armrest and flipped the television screen on the back of the seat in front of her onto the movie channel. She had no intention of listening to the flight attendant’s safety speech.

The less she had to think about her sister’s upcoming nuptials, the better. 

* * *

The nervous blond was on her last nerve and it had only been two hours. He had been deep breathing the entire time – in through the nose, out through the mouth, in through the nose, out through the mouth – and white-knuckling both arm rests. She sympathized with the feeling, but her sympathy only went so far when he was taking up her space.

She pulled one of her earbuds out and turned to him with a glare. He must have seen her move because he offered her a weak apologetic grimace. “Sorry,” he said with a slight southern drawl. “I’m a bit of a nervous flier.”

“’S okay,” she shrugged. “My sister is too. It helps to try to distract yourself.”

“Easier said than done,” he answered through gritted teeth as the plane took a slight, yet totally normal, dip. “Oh Jesus take the wheel.”

She couldn’t help but want to make him feel better. “What are you flying to LA for?”  

“N-n-new job,” he answered, resuming his rhythmic breathing.

“What kind of job?”

“I’m a-a pastry chef. I specialize in, um, in wedding c-cakes.”

Katniss smiled. “My sister’s actually getting married in a week. She’s getting her cake from… _Neptune’s Bakery_.”

“Really?” He raised his eyebrows, slightly darker blond than his hair. “That’s the bakery I just got hired at.”

“Seriously? Maybe you’ll be doing her cake. That’d be a kind of cool story.”

He nodded and pulled his ipad out of his bag. “Yeah. What’s the name?”

She noticed that his breathing had evened out and his legs stopped bouncing. She also noticed that the hair on his arms were light blonde, almost white, and were the same color as his ridiculously long eyelashes. Which framed deep blue eyes that were currently staring at her. “Oh,” she shook her head, trying to hide the blush on her cheeks from being caught. “Oh, um Everdeen-Hawthorne.”

He typed the name into the database he had saved on his ipad. “Doctor themed?”

Katniss snorted. “Oh my God, seriously? She went with the doctor theme? She has Rory so whipped. He followed her out to LA after she got her pediatric internship,” she explained. “He works in construction and faints at the sight of blood.”

“That…would explain why the groom topper has a safety hat,” he muttered, turning his ipad toward her. “Anything the sister of the bride wants to add without the bride’s knowledge?”

She smirked. “Can you put a goat on there? Like one of those little figurines?”

“At some point you’ll have to share that story,” he answered, using his stylus to add a graphic of a goat on one of the tiers. “Because something tells me it’s a doozy.” He showed her the drawing and grinned at her enthusiastic nod.

“Hold on a second there, Mr. Nervous Flier,” she smirked. “Have I entered an alternative reality or did you really just crack a smile for me?”

He laughed. “What can I say? You must calm me.”

“Jesus take the wheel,” she repeated his phrase back to him, shaking her head. “I’m Katniss.”

“Peeta. Mellark.”

 


	60. Tampon Emergency

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> modernlifeofash requested: Evelark, "This is without a doubt the stupidest plan you’ve ever had. Of course I’m in."

Peeta had the windshield wipers on full blast and still couldn’t see the car in front of him. “This is so not smart, Katniss.”

“Well it’s not like I can help it, Peeta,” she snapped back. “I can’t make my uterus stop shedding it’s lining every month unless there’s a baby in it and that is so not happening.”

_Every news report warned about going out into the storm, saying between the low visibility and high winds it was just the start of what was to come. He closed the bakery early that day and spent the majority of the afternoon preparing the house for the storm. When Katniss finally got home from work, he had finished packing up food to take down to the basement. It was supposed to be a bad one, and he was always prepared for the worst._

_What he hadn’t been prepared for was Katniss stomping down the stairs of their tiny house with an empty cardboard box in her hand. “We need to go to the store.”_

_“We can’t,” he said simply. “We’ll go in the morning. Or…afternoon. Whenever the storm passes.”_

_She threw the box at him. “No. We’re going now.”_

“I just don’t understand how you can run out. You knew it was coming,” Peeta said, squinting through the windshield. “You’re always so well prepared.”

Katniss shrugged. “Clearly I thought I still had my emergency stash. Must have gone through it last month.”

“Both emergency stashes?”

“Apparently. Wait, you know about both of them?”

Peeta rolled his eyes and laughed. “Katniss, I’ve spent how many hours cleaning that house? I know all about your secret stashes of things.” He glanced over at her and couldn’t help but chuckle at the embarrassment that crossed her features. He reached over and laced his fingers with hers. “It’s fine. We’ll refill both of your tampon stashes.”

They pulled into the parking lot, surprised to find more than two dozen cars also there. He reached for his umbrella but Katniss shook her head. “The wind is gonna destroy that. It’s only a few feet, I’ll run in and be right back out.”

“Like I’m letting you go in there alone,” he answered, killing the engine of the car. “Come on.”

They sprinted through the parking lot, Peeta only slipping once on the safety paint that was always more slippery when it was wet outside. As if being soaked to the bone wasn’t bad enough, as soon as the doors slid open, they were met with a blast of freezing cold from the store’s ever-working air conditioner.

Peeta let Katniss lead them through the maze of aisles to the ‘feminine care’ section. She filled her arms with tampon boxes, clearly taking his promise of refilling all her stashes seriously.

“Do you need anything else?” He asked, grabbing a package of pads. “These are…winged ones. Do you need those?”

“God, no. I don’t need to feel like I’m wearing a diaper,” she curled her lips in disgust. “Let’s just get these and get home.”

They were in the middle of checking out when the lights flickered. Once. Twice. Then out for good.

“Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen!” A booming voice called out. “Thanks to the storm, our power is out and our backup generator is currently non-functioning. We ask that everyone move to the interior of the store until the power comes back on for your safety while we ride this thing out. “

As their eyes adjusted to the darkness, Katniss frowned. “Fuck it. I need to use the bathroom.” She opened one of the boxes, slipped a tampon into her pocket, and practically ran to the public bathrooms in the front of the store, leaving Peeta to apologize to the clerk.

He waited for her to get back before they ventured to find a place all their own to sit, since most of the others were holed up in grocery or bedding. They split up to steal some comfortable blankets and food, the met up in the toy section near the back. Peeta laid out one of the blankets and used the others to create cushions for them to sit on.

“Sorry,” Katniss muttered, leaning into his body on the floor.

He leaned over and kissed her temple. “It’s okay. I’m just glad I didn’t let you come in by yourself.”

“Me too. Now, what are we going to do to keep each other occupied? I’m already bored.”

“Hmm, we could play truth or dare. Like we did when we were kids?” Peeta joked. “Or we can have sex.”

She glared at him. “Did you forget why we came in here?” He waggled his eyebrows so she playfully punched his shoulder. “This is without a doubt the stupidest plan you’ve ever had.” She sighed. “Of course I’m in. Truth or dare, Peeta?” 

* * *

 The lights came back on while they were in their second round of cart racing. “Think we could get a copy of the video?” Katniss asked as they sprinted back to their car, totally prepared to brave the storm again in order to get from the watchful eye of the manager who caught them in the act. “Because I still say you cheated.”


	61. Happy Birthday, Peeta

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anon requested: Everlark, "Kiss Me"

“This is a bad idea,” Peeta said as his brothers dragged him into the local dive bar for his birthday. “I don’t even like alcohol.”

Rye wrapped his arm around Peeta’s neck and pulled him in close. “Oh, little brother, this isn’t really about you, you know.”

“Yeah!” Will, Peeta’s oldest brother agreed. “It’s a ritual. Plus, we finally get all three Mellark boys together again. Pussy smash!”

“Pussy smash!” Rye echoed in a deep voice right in Peeta’s ear.

Peeta groaned. They had been chanting ‘pussy smash’ all night, declaring it their mission to get all three boys laid tonight. Which was partially cheating since Will’s fiancé was their designated driver for the night. But they had done their best to protect him from their witch of a mother and they had been counting down the days until his 21st birthday from his 20th birthday, so he figured he’d give in and go out with them for one night.

“Barkeep!” Rye shouted as they pulled him up to the bar. “It is my baby brother’s big day. We would like three drafts and three shots of tequila! Oh, and some drinks for the ladies at the end of the bar.” He glanced over and winked at Peeta. In a low whisper, he added, “Pussy smash!”

It really was going to be a long night.

Made even longer when they walked in. Madge with her boyfriend Gale, who never got along with the Mellark boys, and Delly, Rye’s on-again, off-again, and Katniss Everdeen. Peeta had had a crush on Katniss Everdeen for as long as he could remember and apparently had never been that great at hiding it from anyone. Except from her. But that might have been just as much on her inability to pick up on subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) cues and hints as it was on him.

“Peety!!” A very drunk Delly screamed when she saw him, running over to him and wrapping him in a bone-crushing hug. He had forgotten how strong she could be. “Oh. Magosh, happy birthday, birthday boy!! I’m so glad they convinced you to come out!”

He turned and gave his brothers a look learned only from their mother and they both shrugged before bursting into intense laughter. “Yeah. They’re great,” he muttered. “I should head back to our table though…”

“Great! Katniss, will you bring our drinks over?” Delly handed her card over to her friend. “First round’s on me.”

Peeta watched as Delly pulled Madge and the reluctant Gale over to the table where Will and Rye grabbed near the pool tables. Will must have said something to Gale because Madge physically moved her boyfriend to the other side of the table and sit in between the boys.

Everyone else was too busy at the table to notice Katniss sliding up beside him and nudging him with her shoulder. “Happy birthday, Peeta,” she said with a smile. “Having fun?”

“Now,” he answered, reaching down to lace their fingers together under the bar. “How’d you get Rye to tell Delly?”

She shrugged. “I have my ways. Plus a few secrets about them both that neither would want exposed.” She squeezed his hand as he visibly gagged, never wanting to know the full extent of his brother and childhood friends’ kinks. “You never told me what you wanted for your birthday.”

“Yes I did. This,” he answered. “Us. Being in public together almost like regular people.”

“Hm.” She narrowed her eyes in disbelief. “Nope, there must be something else you want. Come on, you can tell me. Anything you want.”

He smirked and turned to lean against the bar, releasing her hand. “Anything?”

“Anything.”

Peeta leaned forward half an inch and in a low voice, he whispered, “okay then, Katniss Everdeen. For my birthday, I want you to kiss me. Right here, in front of everyone.”

His request caught her off guard. There had been a reason they kept their relationship quite for as long as they did. Their small town hadn’t exactly moved on beyond the stereotypes and discriminations based on where people were born. And “mixed side” relationships, like theirs, weren’t exactly popular choices. Madge and Gale worked because she was the mayor’s daughter and actually punched the first person who made fun of them.

But Peeta and Katniss were different for so many reasons. His mother’s response scared him more than the rest of the town’s.

“What?” She asked, scanning his face for confirmation. “Seriously?”

“Seriously,” he answered. “Kiss me.”

She laughed and shook her head before reaching up for his neck, pulling his lips down to hers. He held onto her hips and pulled her tightly against his chest. His fingers weaved through her hair and he groaned into her mouth when her teeth grazed against his lower lip.

They pulled apart, slightly breathless and both well kissed. “Happy birthday, Peeta. Ready to face the firing squad?” She turned her attention to their table, a mixture of slack jaws and triumphant fist pumps, and even a few whistles and whoops.

“Called it!” Delly sang loudly, gladly accepting the money that Rye fished out of his pocket and slipped into her hand. 


	62. Bottled Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the-glappy-hutch requested: "I almost lost you" Everlark

“Katniss?” Peeta called quietly from the front door. All the lights were off and there was no noise to be heard. He slipped out of his shoes and hung his wet jacket up in the closet, keeping the site cracked open so it could dry without smelling. He glanced at their shared bedroom door; even in the dark he could see it was closed. She never closed the door until they were both home.

He swore he could hear her still crying from the other side. His heart ached to be with her but he knew she’d reject his touch. He had walked out after their fight, slamming the front door so hard the walls shook. She tried to call him. Text him. She even had his friends try to reach him but he was in no mood to talk to anyone. He was afraid that as soon as he opened his mouth he’d become like them.

Peeta didn’t yell. He didn’t argue or raise his voice or punch walls. Not in his house. Not with his wife. He grew up in a house with thin walls and angry parents. He heard every nasty word and hateful remark his mother and father said to each other. And he hated it. He spent too many nights curled up under his blankets trying to block out the sound of his mother’s screams and father’s shouts. It happened almost every night and he swore that if he ever got married, he’d never be like his parents. Instead he became the opposite. When things went badly, he shut down. He internalized. He bottled. Under the pressure got to be too much and he had to get out before he exploded.

That night, when he mentioned having to give one of his employees time off for maternity leave and Katniss assumed that meant he wanted a baby, it led to a fight over the biggest issue in their marriage. He didn’t want to say something he didn’t mean. Or have her say something she’d later regret. So instead, he left. He put on his jacket, started his car and drove until the years in his eyes made it too difficult to see.

He considered a bar. Was tempted to call his brother for a place to crash. Instead he stayed in his car, on the side of the highway until the anger and frustration passed and all he was left with was guilt. The urge to run had passed. Now he just wanted to go home.

To Katniss. The best thing that ever happened to him.

“Katniss,” he whispered, sitting next to the crying lump on his side of their bed. He rested his hand on what he was fairly certain was her shoulder.

“Peeta?” She croaked, turning over to face him.

He flipped on the side lamp and his heart leaped into his throat. Her face was red and splotchy. The fire in her grey eyes had dulled. Her hair was matted and she was paler than he had ever seen her. She reached for his hand, clutching onto it for dear life, making sure he was really there.

“You came back?”

His heart shattered and he laid down beside her, pulling her body into his. “I’m so sorry, Katniss.”

“I thought I,” she cried into his shirt, her body staying to shake. “I thought you were gone.”

“Never again,” he promised, running his hands over her in a soothing circle. “You’ll never lose me. No matter what.”

“I almost lost you because of…because I’m selfish…because…”

He shushed her immediately. “No, Katniss. I was. I was so afraid of becoming like…”

“Our mothers,” she finished with a small coughing laugh. “You’re not.”

“Neither are you,” he reassured her. “We’re going to be okay. You and me.”


	63. Officially Official

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> straw-flowers requested: "Wait a minute. Are you jealous" + "Marry me?" Everlark

“Katniss, why is Peeta’s hand on that girl’s lower back like that?”

“Huh?” Katniss turned in the direction Madge was pointing and frowned when she saw them. “Oh. Um, I dunno.”

“Follow up question,” Johanna pipped up. “Why is his hand on HER lower back when usually he’s all over you?”

Katniss shrugged. “Probably because we sort of, kind of broke up,” she mumbled into her drink. She glanced up into four pairs of shocked eyes. “Did…did I not tell you?”

The girls looked at each other, silently debating who would speak first. Delly raised her eyebrows in defeat. “I guess…um…you guys broke up? Uh…”

“I think what Delly is trying to say is how is that possible?” Madge stepped in to save the floundering Delly. “And not just because you two refused to admit you were even dating but because you two have basically been together since you were sixteen.”

“I don’t know,” Katniss offered lamely. “It just sort of happened, I guess. We were talking and it came up and…here we are.”

“Do you need help moving out?” Annie asked.

Katniss shook her head no.

“I know it’s awkward but … does he?” She pressed. “Just because, you know, we’re all friends with both of you and…”

Katniss shook her head again.

“Color me confused but I remember moving both of you into that duplex and it was a whole gang project,” Johanna pointed out. “So, what’s the deal?”

Katniss shrugged again. "Neither of us are moving out?” There were those eyes again.

“Is Peeta sleeping on the couch then? Or are you?” Annie asked slowly.

“Neither…of…us. What is with the looks? I get it that it’s weird but it seems to work for us so we’re just going with it!” Katniss answered, annoyed by the judgmental way her so-called friends were watching her. “Neither of us can really afford our own place and we just have the little love seat that’s not really practical for sleeping on so…I just really don’t want to talk about it anymore. Okay?”

The group nodded and took long drinks of their beverages, all desperately wanting to talk about every single part of what Katniss just shared with them. “Okay but can I ask one more question?” Johanna asked because of course it would be Johanna who couldn’t let it drop. Katniss glared at her but after this long in their friendship, it no longer worked on her like it did on everyone else. “What are you gonna do if Peeta wants to bring her home?”

Katniss sucked in her cheeks as they all turned to watch Peeta and the blonde woman interact. His hand was no longer on her back, but on her hip and they were leaned in close, talking and laughing about who knows what. Even though they still lived together, Katniss hadn’t seen that laugh in what felt like forever. It was one of her favorite things about him.

“He won’t,” she snapped. “He’s not the kind of guy to bring a skanky girl home on the first date.”

Johanna let out a long whistle. “Wait a minute, are you jealous?”

“How do you know it’s their first date?” Annie asked.

“Maybe they’d go back to her place instead,” Delly said to Madge, who shrugged and agreed.

Katniss slammed her empty glass down on the table. “This is ridiculous. I am getting another drink. And when I come back,” she pointed at each girl at the table, “the subject will be changed. Got it?” She kept muttering to herself about her dumb friends all the way up to the bar. She plopped into a bar stool and leaned against the bar with a sigh.

“Rough night?”

“Getting rougher by the minute,” she answered, staring up into the blue eyes she no longer got to call hers. Not that she ever called them hers to begin with. “The girls know. And I’ve been trying to explain our situation and saying it out loud feels so stupid but also…” She shook her head. “How’s your, um, date going?”

He chuckled and sat on the stool next to her. “It’s not a date. But horribly. Turns out when you finally agree to go out with someone who is ‘just like you’ you find out you’re super obnoxious.”

She smiled sympathetically at him. “You’re not obnoxious. But two of you would be.” It felt good to laugh and joke with him again. “You just need a balance.”

“Like a woman with a perpetual frown and the personality of a slug?” He reached over, his hand hovering over hers, practically begging to touch her again.

She held her breath until he rested his hand on the bar next to hers. “I don’t know, I always liked us. We were good together.”

“Most people don’t break up with those they’re good together with,” he reminded her. It wasn’t malicious or judgmental, just truthful and honest. Like Peeta had always been.

This time she reached for his hand. “Most people aren’t so afraid of commitment that they won’t even call the man they’ve been in love with for seven years their boyfriend.”

A look flashed through his eyes as the words slipped from her lips. Words that she had never actually used in reference to him before. She always knew she loved him, as much as she was capable of, as much as she allowed herself to, but she kept it to herself. Until now. Time stood still until he broke the spell and groaned. “I really should get back to my…not-really-a-date.”

“Ask me again,” she stopped him, squeezing his hand.

He shook his head. “I can’t, Katniss. Not like this.” He leaned over and kissed her cheek. “I’ll see you back at the house.”

She nodded and told him of course she will and hopes he has fun and headed back to her table, glad to see the rest have followed her rule and found a new topic to occupy their time.

* * *

She knew Peeta was alread home when she pulled into the driveway. Not only was his car parked in his spot, right next to hers, but she watched him leave with his not-really-a-date at least an hour before they called it quits. He left the kitchen light on for her, with a glass of water and bottle of aspirin on the table, with a note underneath.  _Pop two and drink the entire glass. –P_. She smiled at his thoughtfulness, even though it made her heart sting because she knew that at some point, the girls would be right and he’d move on. Without her. The love of her life would leave her.

She trudged up the stairs to their bedroom because, together or not, they both slept better in each other’s arms, even if no one else ever understood that. They had been through so much together and they could only be anchored to this world by each other. Neither one of them was willing to give that up yet.  _Not till he finds a new anchor_ , she thought. Katniss was surprised to see a low light creeping out from under the door, since usually Peeta liked complete darkness when he slept. She assumed he left her lamp on for her, so when she pushed open the door, she stopped dead in her tracks.

The room was lit with soft, flickering candles that cast dancing shadows on their walls. Rather than rose petals sprinkled all over, there were dandelions, an inside joke between the two of them that she thought he forgot about long ago. And Peeta, sitting on the edge of the bed. “Wha-“

“You said some things in the bar. Things you’ve never said to me before. Things I’ve known because of who you are and what you do, but things I needed to hear. And you made a request.”

She nodded, feeling her eyes well up. “Ask me again.”

He smiled and pulled a dark box out of his pants pocket. He dropped down to one knee and held out his hand for hers. “You’re sure?”

“Ask me again,” she repeated with certainty. “I won’t freak out, I promise.”

He laughed and wiped his cheek. “Katniss Everdeen, with the knowledge that we will be officially official to anyone and everyone, with no more hiding or pretending that we don’t love each other and want to be together…”

“Peeta!” She whined.

“Will you marry me?”

As she accepted his proposal, the one she turned down just a few days ago which was the catalyst for their official/unofficial break up, all she could think about was how awkward it was going to be to tell her friends after the night they just had.


	64. Full Moon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> anon requested: "Come over here and make me" + "Do you..well..I mean…I could give you a massage?" Everlark

“One of these days you’re going to have to actually learn how to swim, you know,” Delly said as Peeta plopped down next to her. “You can’t keep getting an F for the swim portion of gym.”

He laughed and swung his arm around his best friend. “Come on, if I had to swim today, who would keep you company, Dells?”

She rolled her eyes. “Yes because that’s what I need, more attention to the fact that I’m not allowed to swim right now. Stupid period.”

“At least you have an excuse not to be in the pool,” he muttered. “Girls are so lucky. Okay, okay, not ‘lucky’ but you know what I mean.”

Delly laughed and pushed away from him. “You might as well make the most of your time. Calc test on Friday.” She pulled her calculus textbook out of her bag and handed him her notebook full of re-written, color-coded, hyper organized notes. “No use getting two F’s in one week.”

One F he could hide from his mom since the gym teachers never cared enough to send fail-cards home with the students. But an F on a calc test would require a parent’s signature, which, ever since his dad died meant his mother would be the one to sign off his failed test. And that was the last thing he needed. He just hated calculus almost as much as he hated the idea of being in the school swimming pool. Or any swimming pool for that matter.

The sharp whistle from their gym teacher caught his attention and he grinned as he looked up from Delly’s notes. There was a reason he made sure to get into the last-period gym class and it had nothing to do with not being gross and sweaty for the rest of the day or having to take extra time to dry his hair after shower. No, it was because for the past four years, he shared a gym class with Katniss Everdeen and if there was anything he loved more than watching Katniss Everdeen run on the track in the short school-issued gym shorts, which as a teenage boy he really liked, it was watching Katniss Everdeen swim.

“You’re staring again,” Delly chided, not even bothering to look up from her book. “One of these days Katniss Everdeen is going to catch you staring at her. Or worse, one of her ‘body guards’ will.”

Peeta flushed and looked away “I’m just admiring her technique,” he joked. “She’s one of the best of the best in the school so if I’m going to learn by watching, I might as well watch her.”

“I’m like 99% sure that’s not what Coach meant by ‘learn by watching,’ you moron,” she replied. “Why don’t you just ask her out?”

“I can’t,” he muttered.

“Seriously, what is so damn special about her that even the great Peeta Mellark can’t talk to her? She’s just a person,” Delly shrugged. “A nice person, even, underneath that grumpy quasi-loner exterior she has.”

He turned to stare at his friend. “You’ve talked to her?” He shouldn’t have been surprised; Delly Cartwright was easily the friendliest person in the entire country, let alone at school. Except he was surprised because as friendly as Delly was, Katniss was the complete opposite. In all four years of high school, he had never seen Katniss willingly talk to anyone other than her small group of fellow swimmers. “Whatever. It doesn’t matter. I’m happy just watching from afar. As…creepy as that sounds.”

Delly shook her head and tried to suppress her laugh. Peeta was a total goner for that girl and she had absolutely no clue. Couple of idiots, the two of them. They deserved each other.

* * *

Two days later, Peeta was surprised to see Katniss already sitting on the bleachers rather than in the pool. He stopped in his tracks, nearly causing a collision with everyone else in his class who were excited to get into the pool for 90 minutes.

“Mellark! Get out of the way!” His asshole gym teacher yelled.

He hitched his bag further up on his shoulder and shuffled over to the bleachers to take his normal spot. He pulled out Delly’s notes again, even though she told him it wasn’t worth it to cram the day before a test. Truthfully, he knew he wasn’t going to do much cramming or studying today, not with Katniss sitting only a few feet away from him, her long olive legs stretched out along the metal bleachers.

“KittyKat, what the hell?” A tall shadow crossed over them.

She looked up and rolled her eyes. “Shut it, Odair.”

Finnick Odair was the relatively new swim coach and was probably the reason the team made such an impressive run at State last year. When he swam for D4 Private, he shattered solo and team records, so when he agreed to take on D12 Public, he brought high expectations with him. He also brought his ridiculous good looks and sexual charm which sent all the girls, and a few of the boys, into a tizzy around him.

Though, clearly not Katniss Everdeen since she gave him the same death glare she gave everyone else.

“Calf still giving you trouble?” Finnick sat next to her and reached for her leg.

She pulled her leg away from his hand. “Yeah. I can’t figure out what I did.”

Finnick let out a long breath. “We’ll have you do some strength stuff today to keep you out of the pool. But if it’s still bothering you tomorrow, you’ll need to go see a specialist tomorrow. Cramps shouldn’t last this long. I’m worried it might be something more.” He patted her foot and got up to leave.

She stretched her leg back out and began rubbing her calf, still able to feel the knot. “Damn it,” she groaned.

“You should do circles,” Peeta said quietly, staring at the way her fingers were wrapped around her calf muscle.

Her head snapped toward him with the trademark glare in her silver eyes. “Excuse me?”

Peeta gulped.  _He said that out loud? To her? And she heard? Crap. Crap crap crap._  “Uh…to work out the…um…the knot…sorry.”

She stared at him for a few moments, sucking in her cheeks until he looked away. “How do you know about that?”

“What? Oh…um…wrestling. Our muscles always cramp and knot up after practice so we’ve figured out…good ways to…work them out. Here, like this,” he reached over for her leg and stopped as soon as his fingers touched her skin.  _What the hell are you doing??_  He pulled his hand back as if he touched a flame. “Do you…well…I mean…I could give you a massage? Show you, I mean.”

She was guarded, watching him like prey would watch a potential predator. It made her uncomfortable, she preferred being the hunter not the hunted. But there was something about Peeta Mellark that, while made her nervous, also put her at ease. She nodded her assent and shivered when his hands were back on her skin.

When the bell rang, they both jumped, having been lost in the sensation of Peeta’s strong hands working through the tight muscles of Katniss’ legs. She pulled her legs back and stood up quickly. So quickly that she got a head rush and started to fall backwards into Peeta. “Oh, god, I’m…oh…”

He just stared at her in disbelief. All in one day he went from zero communication to holding the girl of his dreams in his arms.  _Oh shit. Put her down, Mellark_. He helped her to her feet and scrambled back.

“T-thanks,” she said quickly. “For the…help.”

“Yeah, yeah, of course. No problem.”

She smiled briefly before turning and heading down the bleachers toward the locker room to change for swim.

“Katniss,” he called to her retreating figure. “Um, Delly is having a party on Friday. A ‘Full Moon’ party thing. You…you should come. If you want.”

She furrowed her eyebrows. “A full moon party?”

He chuckled and nervously ran his hand through his hair. “Yeah, it just happened that the full moon fell on a Friday when her parents are out of town.”

Katniss chuckled and shook her head. “Johanna has been wanting to get me out, so maybe I’ll see you there. Thanks again, Peeta.”

As soon as he was certain she wasn’t planning on turning back around, he pumped his fist in success. Suddenly his upcoming calculus test didn’t seem nearly as scary. Not when he had Katniss Everdeen to look forward to.

* * *

“You’re seriously going to a party because some boy asked you?” Gale asked, trying not to laugh at his cousin’s strange behavior.

She frowned into the mirror. “I’m not going because he asked me to. I’m going because it’ll finally get Johanna off my back about being social or cutting loose or whatever else she’s always going on about.”

“It’s just…a party, Katniss. A ‘Full Moon party’ of all things. It’s just…oh your father would be rolling in his grave if he knew.”

She turned on him, quickly pinning him against the bathroom door-frame he had previously been leaning against. “Don’t say a word about my father you asshole,” she growled, eyes blazing. She released him and turned back to the mirror. “Besides, he’d be glad I’m finally kind of fitting in. Well, that we’re fitting in,” she winked, smirking as Gale’s face drained. “Better get changed, Cousin. Johanna and Finnick will be here soon.”

“Don’t you think it’s weird that Finnick, who is an adult and coach at your school, is going to a high school party?” Gale asked, shucking off his shirt and throwing it in the hamper.

Katniss shrugged. “He’s only a few years older than us. And everyone already loves him so actually, he’s kind of perfect to balance out the rest of us who…no one really likes.”

Gale scoffed. “People like me. Yeah, fine. So, what does one wear to a high school Full Moon party?”

* * *

It turned out, people at D12 Public High School were very into theme parties, so they all dressed like various monster-like creatures that came out during full moons. Someone at the door even provided cheap, plastic wolf masks for anyone who didn’t bring one.

Johanna and Finnick enthusiastically put their masks on and let out obnoxious howls that were immediately met by a chorus of already drunk high schoolers inside. “This is going to be a fucking blast!” Johanna called, grabbing Finnick’s arm and rushing them both into the crowd.

Gale stared at the mask in his hand, then over at his cousin, who was eyeing hers just as disgustingly. “Let’s go fit in, Catnip.” He snapped his mask on and walked into the crowd, leaving her alone.

“Yeah,” she muttered. “Time to fit in.”

Not one for crowds, she pushed through the group inside to the cool air in Delly Cartwright’s backyard where fewer people had gathered. She grabbed a beer from the cooler and sat on one of the lounge chairs near the bonfire that someone started. Katniss could hear Peeta’s heavy footsteps long before he sat beside her.

His eyes were glassier than before, clearly a sign of how much he had been drinking. “Hey! You made it!” He cheered far louder than he needed to since they were right next to each other. “And you got a drink!”

She smiled. “And clearly you’ve had more than a drink.”

He nodded. “A few. Delly told me I needed to loosen up so I could actually talk to you.”

“Is that so? And why would you need to loosen up just to talk to me?” She asked, turning to face him. “I’m nothing special. Besides, you can talk to anyone.”

He stared at her for a moment, searching her eyes for sarcasm or cockiness or something but coming up empty. “You’re not just anyone. You are Katniss Everdeen and you intimidate the hell out of me. But I also think you’re…really hot.”

Katniss let out a disbelieving laugh. “Alcohol doesn’t make you brave, Peeta. It seems to make you a liar.”

Peeta shook his head vigorously. “No!” He covered her hands with his. “No you are. You’re incredible and I’ve had this crush on you for forever but I knew there was no way you’d ever be interested in a guy like me because you’re you and I’m just me and really-”

“Peeta, you need to stop talking so much,” she warned him.

He smirked, all the liquid courage rushing through his veins because there he was, sitting right next to the girl of his dreams and holding her hands and telling her how he felt and she was still there. “Come over here and make me.”

She quirked an eyebrow at his challenge but leaned forward and pressed her lips against his.

“Wow. You just kissed me,” he said breathlessly when they pulled apart.

She reached up and cupped his face in her hand, grinning at his dopey smile. “What can I say? Stranger things have happen under a full moon.”


	65. Breadsticks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> anon requested: Katniss on a bad date shoving breadsticks into her purse

Katniss made sure to bring her extra big purse with her on the blind date that Madge set her up on because they were going to the homey Italian restaurant that had the best breadsticks Katniss had ever had. And if she was going to suffer through another disastrous date, she was going to get something out of it. She was tempted to empty the first basket right away but Madge told her she had to at least try to make a good impression. Besides, it would probably draw too much attention to her if she made the switch too quickly.

The breadsticks were complimentary but she was fairly certain stealing them to take home was frowned upon. Even if they were heavenly.

The date went about as badly as she expected. She had no idea where Madge found these guys but each one was worse than the last. This guy, who introduced himself as ‘Cato,’ was attractive enough but as soon as he opened his mouth, his true persona came out. And he was a complete asshole. All he seemed capable of talking about was himself and after the first couple stories, she knew all she cared to know about him. He didn’t even notice how quickly the basket of bread disappeared and was refilled. Or that he was eating so little of it’s contents.

Katniss, on the other hand, had perfected the art of taking a sip of wine, picking up a breadstick to make like she was going to drag it through her pasta sauce but instead slipping it inconspicuously into her plastic lined purse with the others. When she wasn’t filing her purse,  she was filling her mouth with the homemade pasta and fresh sauce that the eatery became renowned for. She wished she ordered double so she could take a portion home to enjoy worn her contraband breadsticks.

“Can I get you guys anything else?” The perky waitress asked,  right as Katniss tried to slip a breadstick down. The waitress had been all over the two all night, making Katniss work twice as hard as she normally did. “More wine?”

Cato finished the last swallow of his drink and nodded. “It seems like we’re pretty low on breadsticks, too. Can we get some more?”

The waitress nodded. “Definitely. I’ll be right back.”

She carried the empty basket to the back and rang the bell to signal the baker for a refill. A mop of blond curls and bright blue eyes popped into the window. “Holy shit we’ve been through a lot of bread today,” he observed, grabbing the empty basket. “Which table?”

She glared at the young baker. “Which one do you think? Table 12.”

He frowned as he loaded freshly baked breadsticks into the basket and slid it across to the waitress. “Again? For fuck’s sake, who’s out there, a sumo wrestler? No way two people can eat that much bread and not…” He groaned and took the basket back. “I’ve got this one.”

He stormed past her into the dining room. “Everdeen!”

Katniss sat up straight, her eyes as wide as saucers at his voice. “Fuck,” she whispered, closing her purse and sliding it between her feet to hide the evidence.

“What’s going on?” Cato asked as the other man stared at his date. “Who are you?”

“Are you serious, Everdeen?” The baker asked, completely ignoring Cato. “This is your last one. I’m not refilling this for you again.”

She shrugged and tried to smile innocently at him. “But they’re so good, Peeta.”

“Last one,” he warned her again. Then, as he set the basket down, he made sure to lean down to be in her ear. “Unless you let me take you out. Then you can have all the breadsticks you want. Maybe even the cheese ones you like so much.”

“How did you-”

He turned to look at her in disbelief. “Come on, Katniss. You think I haven’t noticed? Think about my offer.”

When Peeta left and returned to the kitchen, he left behind the unmistakable scent of fresh bread and dill, with a hint of cinnamon from the deserts they offered at the restaurant. She couldn’t help but watch the baker she had harbored a small crush on since the first time she saw his picture in the paper when the restaurant opened walk away, running his hand through his curls.

“I’m sorry,” she said, pushing her chair back from the table and fishing out money for her share of dinner. “I’ve got to go.”

“Where are you going?” Cato asked, confused and annoyed that his date was just leaving.

She looked toward the kitchen and grinned. “I’ve got to see a man about some bread.” 


	66. Anesthesia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> anon requested: Everlark Drabble of either lovers or just best friends, one of them had surgery and the conversation that follows once the other is awake

When Delly called in near hysterics looking for someone who could take Peeta home from the hospital after his surgery, Katniss wanted to say no. Not because she wanted to further upset Delly or because she didn’t want to help Peeta, but because she really just didn’t want to leave her bed on her one day off from work. But there she was, in Peeta’s recovery room, waiting for him to finally wake up. The nurses warned her that he’d be pretty groggy for a little while but since it was relatively minor surgery, he should be cleared to go home later that day.

When he was wheeled back into his room, the nurses huddled around him to take his vitals and fill out his charts. Katniss sat in a corner, out of the way, until he opened his eyes and let out a strangled moan. One of the nurses smiled and waved Katniss over.

“How are you feeling, Peeta?” The nurse asked, handing him a saltine cracker to ease his stomach.

Peeta moaned and weakly attempted to eat the cracker. “Fine,” he mumbled.

The nurse gave his shoulder a short squeeze. “I’m going to go get the doctor to take a look at you, alright?” She turned to Katniss and handed her the pack of crackers. “He should eat a few more of these or he’ll get sick. I’ll be back.”

Katniss nervously walked up to the side of Peeta’s bed with another saltine for him. She hated everything about hospitals, from the harsh lighting to the stench of bleach that assaulted her senses, so even though Peeta was fine and wasn’t going to die in his hospital bed like her father did so many years ago, she wasn’t comfortable.

“I need some medicine,” he mumbled.

“They’re bringing you some, but you need to eat the cracker first,” Katniss said in a shaky voice.

He moaned again but tried to take a bite of the bland saltine. Peeta turned her her, his normally bright blue eyes still cloudy from the anesthesia. “Woah. Are you my nurse? You’re really pretty.” He accepted the second cracker, even though he still hadn’t finished the first one. “Like…the second prettiest - you know what? You…you look like my pretty friend.”

Katniss couldn’t help but snicker. Drunk Peeta had a habit of slurring out every thought in his brain and high Peeta seemed to be even worse. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah,” he confirmed with a serious nod. “My friend is the preeeettiest girl I’ve ever seen and you look like her. Do you know her? My friend? Cause you’re like…you’re like her twin. Oh!” He turned his head side to side. “Is Delly here cause she’s s’posed to take me hooome.”

“Um, well, that’s why I’m here actually,” Katniss said.

Peeta narrowed his eyes. “You’re not Delly.”

“No,” she laughed. “No, but Delly had something come up so I’m taking you home.”

“Holy shit!” He squeaked. “For real? You…you’re taking me home? Holy shit. I am sooo lucky. Are you really?”

She nodded. “Is that okay?”

“Duuuude,” he said, smiling widely. “I’m like, the luckiest person eeeever. Well, the second luckiest. Do you, do you know who the luckiest is?”

“Who?”

“Who…whoever gets to go home with Katnisssss. Oooh, Katniss. She’s my pretty friend.” He waved his cracker at her. “She’s the one you kinda look like. I really, really like my friend, Katniss. Do you know her? You look like her and she’s so pretty.”

Katniss swallowed hard, trying not to show the surprise on her face. She and Peeta had been friends for years but he had never shown any indication that he thought of her as anything more than just friends in that time. He was attractive and popular and could get any girl he wanted, so what did he see in her? “Um, well…”

“Oh! OH you know, you know what we should do?” He asked, trying to sit up in excitement. “We should, when you take me home, we should stop by her house! I could say hi to her and you could see her and see if you think she’s pretty too! Can we do that? Cause she’s….oh gosh she’s so pretty. I think you would think she was pretty.”

“Hello, Peeta!” A male voice interrupted Peeta’s babbling about how attractive he found his friend, which relieved Katniss like nothing else had. “How are you feeling?”

“Gooood,” he answered. “Thanks for sending the pretty girl.” He tried winking at Katniss but it came out more as an awkward double blink.

The doctor smiled between them as he looked over Peeta’s chart. “You are very lucky to have such a pretty girlfriend,” he joked. The color drained from Katniss’ face but before she could correct him, the doctor continued talking to Peeta about how the surgery went and what he needed to do in the upcoming weeks. When it became painfully obvious that the instructions would be lost on him, the doctor gave a written copy of his instructions to Katniss. “He’ll need to be back in two weeks for another post-op check up. He has a prescription for Vicodin down at the pharmacy. It may be best to start him on half a pill at a time because they can upset his stomach. Will you be able to keep an eye on him for 24 hours?”

“You’re going to be with me for 24 hours?” Peeta asked in disbelief. “Holy shit. Oh! Sorry Doctor!”

The doctor laughed. “Don’t worry about it, Peeta. I’ve heard much worse.” He turned to Katniss. “If anything happens or he gets a fever within the next 24 hours, you bring him into the ER because it could be a sign of infection that needs to be taken care of. Any questions?”

Katniss was left dumbfounded. She had only agreed to take him home from the hospital, not to babysit him for the next 24 hours. She felt pressure on her hand and looked down to see where Peeta had reached out and grabbed it. He was looking up at her with the big eyes that she could never really resist if she tried. She sighed and made a mental note to call into work tomorrow. “Nope, no questions. Can I take him home?”


	67. Seven Minutes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> abbythebear + anon requested: "You can’t be serious" + angry!Everlark smut

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing, Undersee?” Gale asked in a hushed whisper once they were out of earshot of the rest of the party. “This feels like it may blow up in your face.”

Madge shook her head. “I don’t know what else to do with them, Gale! The worst that could happen is what? They hate each other more? I don’t even think it’s possible.”

He sighed. “It’s your party. Let’s get these drinks out there so they don’t kill each other before we can see if this works.” The two carried the tray of drinks into the living room where the tension is so thick you could cut it with a blunt knife.

Everyone at the party knew the plan that Madge and Delly cooked up a few weeks ago. The animosity between Katniss and Peeta had gone above and beyond acceptable or amusing and was now affecting the entire friend group. They had all been forced to pick sides between their friends and this was the first time in what felt like forever that they had been in the same room as each other. No one knew exactly why they hated each other, but everyone was ready for it to end. So when Madge passed out the shot glasses to everyone, they all nervously waited for the two mortal enemies to take theirs first.

“So, I know I’m the last one to turn 21 in the group, but I was thinking that we just keep pregaming for a while before we go out? Maybe even play some silly games until then?” Madge looked around at the group, making sure everyone remembered the plan. “Excellent! SInce we all have drinks, let’s start with Never Have I Ever!”

The game started out innocently enough, Madge admitting she had never kissed someone of the same sex, Thom admitting that he had never smoked a cigarette despite having smoked a joint, Delly admitting to never having played ‘Seven Minutes in Heaven.’

“Wait. Seriously?” Madge asked with a knowing smile as her plan started coming together just as she planned. “Well we are changing that!” She skipped into the kitchen and came back with a plastic bowl. “Everyone put your keys in this bowl. Whoever’s keys I pull out will have to spend seven minutes in…the…guest bedroom closet.” The guest bedroom was on the same floor as the living room and the closest closet that people could actually get into.

Once all the keys were in the bowl, Madge handed the bowl to Gale, closed her eyes and reached in, feeling for the heavy circle keyring she knew was on Katniss’ keys. Once she felt it, she gripped her fingers around it and pulled it out triumphantly. “Oh! Whose are these?”

Katniss frowned and raised her hand in annoyance. She had zero desire to spend any time in the closet with any of these guys mostly because Gale, Thom, and Bristol might as well be her brothers and Peeta was…Peeta. She hated Peeta Mellark with every fiber of her being. She crossed her fingers hoping that she’d get stuck with anyone else.

But the odds were not in her favor. And when Madge pulled out the keys that were so undeniably Peeta’s, she actually groaned. Not him. Of all the people it could be, it had to be Peeta Mellark.

He rolled his eyes and stood up, taking a long drink of his beer and wiping his hands on the front of his jeans. “You have got to be kidding me,” Peeta muttered, glaring across the room at Katniss, who was glaring just as hard back. He shook his head and walked silently into the guest room with Madge and Katniss close behind.

He turned as soon as they reached the closet. “Seriously, Madge?”

Madge shrugged, immediately dropping the smile that creeped onto her face. “Those are the rules, Peeta. Besides, it’s only seven minutes. You’ll both survive.” She opened the door for them both. “Have fun!”

She shut the door right as they both flipped her off.

“This is so fucking ridiculous,” Peeta muttered into the dark room.

“Do you have to talk right now?” Katniss snapped, staring at the door with her arms crossed.

He rolled his eyes. “For fuck’s sake, Katniss.”

She turned to stare at him, her eyes adjusting to the darkness. He’s standing in the corner of the closet with his own arms crossed over his chest, head cocked to the side. “What? I’m the bitch because I don’t want to listen to you talk for the next seven minutes?”

“Basically,” he spat back.

She shook her head. “You are such a dick.”

“Right because I’m the one who ended our friendship for no reason.”

“No reason?” She asked in a low voice. “Really?”

“Yes, ‘really,’” he mimicked her tone. “All I know is one day we were friends and the next day you wouldn’t even talk to me. So if I want to talk for seven minutes and annoy the shit out of you then I will.”

“I cannot believe you’re not going to take any of the responsibility for that,” Katniss said with a sarcastic laugh. “I shouldn’t be surprised though, you were always good at being a victim.”

Their mutual silence screamed louder than any words they could actually be saying. They were facing each other in the darkness, only a few feet from each other and both staring daggers into each other. He took a step toward her, pushing her back against the door, trapping her between his arms. His breathing was ragged and his jaw clenched as he struggled to maintain his composure. “Don’t you dare say another word about that.”

“Make me,” she challenged. “Or are you too much of a wuss to do anything about it?”

She could hear the growl from his chest as he pressed his lips hard against hers. She yelped and pushed him away, breathing heavily. “What the hell was that?”

Peeta wiped off his lips with the back of his hand like he was totally disgusted with having kissed her. She furrowed her eyebrows and leapt toward him. He responded just as forcefully, pushing his lips apart and allowing her tongue to slide into his mouth. Her hand reached up and tangled in his hair. His slide down her waist to her ass, hoisting her up onto his hips. She wrapped her legs around him and he pushed her back so she was pinned to the door again. Their kisses were hurried and sloppy, angry and wrong, but they were pulled toward each other with too strong a force to break. His hand slipped under her shirt, twisting at her nipple until she moaned into his mouth. Not wanting him to have the upper hand, she began to thrust her hips against his hardening cock until he almost dropped her.

As soon her feet touched the closet floor, his fingers unbuttoned her jeans and pushed them down over her narrow hips. They stared at each other for a moment for silent consent. They hated each other but they knew what was about to happen and they both wanted it. She yanked down his pants, barely taking the time to unzip them completely, and pulled his cock out of his boxers.

“You drive me fucking insane,” he growled, slipping a finger into her, curling it toward him to make her moan.

She nodded, her body betraying her mind. “Just shut up and fuck me already, Mellark.”

He hoisted one of her legs up around his waist and pushed his cock into her, using his mouth to stifle her noises. Her toe curled as he thrust into her as hard and deep as he could, burying himself into his former friend and current enemy. She pulled her lips away from his and sunk her teeth into the soft skin of his shoulder, tasting the trickle of blood that she drew. She was so tight around him that he knew he wouldn’t last long in their current situation. He dropped his thumb down to her sensitive clit and rubbed tight circles until her breathing became ragged and her body tensed around him.

“Fuck,” he moaned after a few more thrusts, pushing her away from him. She dropped her knees in front of him and took him in her mouth, sucking him with vigor. “Fuck, Katniss,” he warned her but she kept her lips firmly around him until he came with a muted groan that she felt ripple through his entire body.

She pulled away to rest on on her heels as he leaned back against the wall of the closet. They were both still breathing hard and she hardly noticed he was reaching down for her until he gripped her upper arm. He pulled her to her feet and into his chest, wrapping his arms around her in a strangely intimate embrace.

“I don’t hate you,” he confessed into her hair. “But I hate that you hate me.”

“I hate that you slept with Glimmer,” she whispered. “I hate that she got a part of you that I always wanted.”

He could hear the blood pulsing through his body as she brought up the biggest mistake of his life. “I know.”

“I just don’t understand. Why her? You knew how I felt about Glimmer and her minions. They tortured me for years after my dad died and you just…how can you tell me you love me and then sleep with someone like her?”

“It was a mistake, Katniss. I knew it was but…God, I mean, seeing you kiss Darius that day outside your house almost killed me. I was so mad and I just wanted you to hurt as badly as I did. I didn’t mean to sleep with her but things just got out of hand.” He ran his fingers through her hair. “I wish we could go back to how we were before…”

“Before you told me you loved me?” She finished, her voice cracking.

He shook his head. “No. That’s one thing I’ll never take back. I’ll always love you, Katniss Everdeen. Even if you hate me for the rest of you life.”

She laughed as she pulled away to start redressing. “I could never really hate you, Peeta. I just didn’t realize what you meant to me until…” She turned back to look him in the eye. “It was always only you for me.”

“Always?” He asked with a hopeful smile.

Katniss nodded. “Always. Come on, Mellark. Better let them know their plan worked.” When he reached for her hand, she instantly laced their fingers together, having missed the feeling of his skin on hers. 


	68. Zumba

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> anon requested: "an Everlark drabble where one is a Zumba/hip hop instructor and the other comes to the class for the first time"

“No.” Peeta stopped in his tracks as Delly led him to the room where her ‘fun gym class’ was going to be held. Ever since the roommates joined the gym, Delly had been trying every type of class they offered and let Peeta just do his normal, self-directed workouts. So when she suggested they take a class together, he was hesitant but agreed since she assured him it would be right up his alley.

“Please?”

Peeta shook his head. “Nope. That is most definitely not happening.”

“Why not?” Delly whined. “You were planning on doing cardio today, anyway.”

“Exactly,” he answered. “Actual cardio, like running. Not…Brazilian dancing or whatever the hell this is. Where’s Madge? Don’t you usually go with her?”

Delly rolled her eyes. “She has a date tonight and can’t come with and I really hate going alone. I get too self-conscious,” she shrugged.

Peeta stared at her in disbelief. “And you think it wouldn’t be worse if I was there with you? Come on, Dels, it’s just…I don’t want to. It’s such a female class.”

“Peeta Mellark!” She smacked the back of his head. “What the hell do you mean by that?”

He glared at her and rubbed his head. “First off, ow! You know you’re supposed to take those damn rings off before you slap me. And second, I mean are there even any guys in that class with you?”

She didn’t even have to look into the room for her face to show that he was right. There hadn’t been a single guy in the Zumba class since she and Madge started going. She frowned until the perfect thought hit her. “Well, that’s clearly because none of them are as progressive and comfortable in their masculinity as you are, Peety.”

He let out a long exhale. “You don’t get to use that again for like six months, Delilah Cartwright.” With one last longing look back at the large exercise room full of the traditional treadmills and ellipticals that were calling his name, he sighed. “Fine. But we’re going in the back so no one can see me.”

Delly let out a small squeak of excitement and dragged him into the room. “Okay, so, the instructors will be up front and they’ll be turned around to face us so anytime they say ‘right,’ you’ll do the opposite.”

“I’m not an idiot,” he muttered. “Just horribly uncoordinated.”

“Don’t even worry about that part, Peeta. Leevy, our instructor, is really good for making people feel good about how bad they are.” She smiled nervously at him. “I mean, I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

Only, it wasn’t Leevy teaching the class that day. Instead it was an instructor that even Delly had never seen before. A few of the ladies who had been in the class longer than anyone else grumbled to each other about how ‘the hard ass was back,’ which made Peeta’s flight reflex kick in even harder.

He made it through the warm up stretches just fine, even if he wasn’t quite a flexible as almost anyone else in the room. But when the instructor, who introduced herself as Katniss, started the music, any little confidence he had dropped away. Because it turned out that in Zumba, the instructors don’t really call out moves like he expected. Instead, they just started moving and everyone followed suit. Delly tried to tell him what to do but with the music as loud as it was, he couldn’t hear a damn thing.

It also didn’t help that he was completely entranced by Katniss’ hips as she rolled them in circles, and the muscles in her thighs and tight, firm, defined abs that flexed with each movement. By the time they took their first break, he was so completely lost that he considered calling it quits early to avoid continued embarassment.

“This is…horrible, Delly.” He took a long drink of water and used the bottom of his shirt to wipe his face. “I’m horrible at this.”

“No,” she said with a sympathetic grin. “You’re not you’re just…”

“Heavy footed.” Delly and Peeta both looked toward the intruding voice and right into the grey eyes of their instructor. She was standing only a few feet from the pair with her arms crossed and hip cocked. “When you move,” she continued, “you’re using your entire foot. You need to roll from your toe back and you’ll be able to pivot faster. Plus you’ll be a lot quieter.”

“T-t-thanks,” he stuttered, swallowing hard in her presence.

She nodded, her lips in a firm line. “If you want, you can move up closer to me so you can see what I’m doing better.”

His jaw dropped. “Oh, no, no no no, I’m, I’m good back here. But, um, thanks.”

“No, really. That way I can help you. Come on.”

Peeta looked over at Delly who raised her eyebrows and shrugged. “Better go.”

His eyebrows furrowed together in fear as he walked up toward the front. The ladies in the front row moved over for him, one even licking her lips at him. He noticed that and glanced back at Delly, who wasn’t even looking at him.

“Blondie,” Katniss called to him a low voice that only he could hear. “Eyes on me, okay? We’ll get you through this.” She gave him a small smile that set him at ease. But that smile only lasted a fraction of a second before she turned on the music and started them into their second round of confusing and non-stop dance moves.

“You looked better that second time,” Delly said, refilling her water bottle in the fountain. “Much less like you were having a stroke.”

Peeta glared at her. “Gee, thanks, Dells. I’m still not doing this again with you.”

“Why?” She asked. “Look how hard you worked out.” She nodded her head toward his shirt which was drenched in sweat, both from the class and from him using it as his own sweat towel. “Maybe this should be your normal Tuesday and Thursday workout.”

“I’ll stick with running and weights, thanks.”

“Delly’s right, Blondie,” Katniss said, putting her hand on Delly’s shoulder. “Zumba can be a good way to improve your coordination, which will benefit you in other types of workouts. You should consider it. Nice job, both of you.”

Peeta couldn’t help but watch the sway of her ass as she walked toward the staff locker room as he thought about her offer. Maybe it’d be worth making a fool of himself if it meant getting to sweat next to someone like her. Or at least to get her to know his actual name.


	69. Friendly Competition

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anon requested: "you fainted…straight into my arms. You know, if you wanted my attention you didn’t have to go to such extremes" Everlark

Becoming a Peace Keeper had been Katniss’ dream for as long as she could remember. There had been an Everdeen on the force for generations and if the picture of her in a “Future Peace Keeper” onesie was any indication, she intended to continue that tradition. Her best friend, Gale joined up a few years ahead of her on his eighteenth birthday and was the only person in her family who supported her decision to go into the same profession that killed both of their fathers in a freak accident. So when she enlisted on her eighteenth birthday and received notification to arrive at Panem Academy for training, he made sure she knew everything she’d need to do to pass certification and make it into the corp. She was already in shape from four years of cross country and swim in high school and she spent the two months between her birthday and her arrival at the training center studying old case studies and previous exams. She wasn’t a good student while she was in high school so she knew that would be her biggest challenge. But she was determined to not only make it into the corps, but to be the youngest member of the elite Star Squad.

Gale tried to give her tips and hints for how to survive the aptly named “Hell Training” at the academy. He didn’t warn her that she may get stuck bunking with a third year in for her recertification who had a habit of getting bare assed naked every time she walked into their barrack. And when she told him about the naked woman, Gale just laughed and said, “I should have known you’d get stuck with Mason,” which was less than helpful.

As she suspected, Katniss excelled in the speed and endurance elements of the training. She could easily run a sub 9-minute mile and sprint faster than the other female recruits. Her strength could use some work, but her overall fitness scores were high enough for consideration into the Star Squad. Now all she had to do was perform above average on her exams.

Which would be easier to do if she didn’t have to sit through case study seminars with the cocky, obnoxious, know-it-all, Recruit Peeta Mellark. He already made a name for himself during the strength aspects of training, easily surpassing the other recruits for pushups, pull-ups, and sit-ups. But he wasn’t content with just being the strongest recruit, apparently he also needed to be the smartest. He was the first to raise his hand every time the instructor asked a question and always answered with a cocky smile.

She wasn’t a huge fan of his arrogance. Or the way his eyes seemed to linger on her whenever she answered a question or passed by him after class. And she certainly didn’t like the way her skin responded that one time she got overheated during PT when they had to practice in full pads and came-to in his arms.

_“What the hell?” She asked, looking around at all the faces huddled around her._

_“You fainted…” A pair of dark blue eyes came into focus. They looked over her with concern, scanning her eyes for basic function. The concern was quickly replaced with a smirk. “Straight into my arms. You know, Recruit, if you wanted my attention, you didn’t have to go to such extremes.”_

_“Augh, get off me. I’m fine!” She snapped, resting her hands on the ground to hold herself up. A C.O. walked her to the medic, but the entire time, she swore she could feel those dark blue eyes staring straight at her._

* * *

“Recruits, today we will focus on weaponry and hand-to-hand combat,” Atala, the C.O. in charge of physical fitness announced. “Pair up, let’s get started.” Katniss moved over to the weaponry station, running her hand along the many different options they had available until she landed on the bow and arrow set. The C.O.s preferred that the recruits learn multiple weapons so that they could be properly prepared for any situation. But after being humiliated in one of the seminars yesterday for getting an incorrect answer to an easy enough question, she needed something to boost her ego back up.

She grabbed the bow and took her place in line with the other recruits. Of course Peeta Mellark swooped in right in front of her with a fighting knife in each hand. “Thanks, Everdeen,” he winked, which made her sigh and roll her eyes at him. Each recruit was given a different task based on their weapon of choice, and being near the back gave Katniss an idea of what might be expected of her with a long-range weapon.

“Recruit Mellark, you’re up.” Atala called. When he held up his hands showing his weapon, she announced it to the other C.O.s so they could properly adjust their guards. Four C.O.s of varying size and speed circled around him. “Recruit Mellark. In order to show proficiency with a combat knife, you must use at least three of the six approved angles of attack into vital areas of your opponent. If you are ‘hit’ more than twice, you will fail your weapon exam. On my whistle.”

It turned out that Peeta only got hit once and it was a strategic move to get them off guard so he could thrust his knife into the padding around the C.O.’s neck. He moved with a grace that she didn’t realize he had. When Atala blew her whistle signaling the end of his task, he spun the knives in his hands and slipped them into his belt like he was in an old Wild West movie. “Impressed?” He asked Katniss when he walked past her.

She scoffed. Even though she did think his ability to disarm the four C.O.s so quickly was amazing, she would never tell him. He didn’t need anyone else to feed that oversized ego of his. Besides, the two of them had developed an unofficial rivalry, which basically forbade her from complimenting him.

“Recruit Everdeen.”

Rather than having direct contact with C.O.s like Peeta, Katniss’ task involved nine moving dummies at varying distances and speeds. She was given a dozen arrows and instructed, like Peeta, to hit the vital areas of the dummies. Setting her stance, she takes a deep breath. As she pulled back on the bow, she could tell something is different than what she was used to back home. She missed the first dummy she was aiming for by a couple of inches and muttered curses under her breath for not testing the strings out before performing in front of everyone. In front of Peeta Mellark who she just knew was laughing at her miss.

She took a deep breath and repositioned her stance. In her head, she pictures the dummies as wild game, she imagined that she was hunting back in the woods by her house. She easily skewered the initial dummy through the neck and instantly reloaded to hit another directly in the chest. Without missing a beat, she shoulder-rolled forward, coming up on one knee and shooting off three arrows in a row to hit the dummies in definite kill zones. One by one she picks off the dummies. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a few of the C.O.’s tossing a football between each other, so she pivots and sends an arrow straight toward them. There’s a collective shout of alarm as people stumbled away, but once the confusion has calmed, the football is resting on the ground with an arrow lodged through it.

Atala blew her whistle sharply and in that moment, Katniss realized she may have just completely screwed herself and destroyed any chance she had of making it into the Star Squad. She dropped her bow and attempted to swallow the lump in her throat that felt just as big as that football.

“C.O.s! Bring it over!” Atala called. She snatched the ball from the two C.O.’s and pulled the arrow clean out. “You two are leaders here and should be paying attention to what your recruits are doing, not playing around,” she berated them, tossing the flattened ball back to them. “Best shot I’ve seen in years, Everdeen.”

Amidst the applause from the other recruits and C.O.s, Katniss bent over to retrieve her bow. She didn’t like showing off, but she couldn’t help the smile on her face at the rare compliment from her hardass C.O. As she passed by Peeta, she couldn’t help but throw his taunt back in his face. “Impressed?”

“Oh, yeah,” he answered, nodding slightly and smirking. She hated that no matter what, she never seemed to be able to affect him the way he flustered her.

When they switched over to hand-to-hand combat, they spent the first few hours learning techniques and then were assigned partners. She knew better than to hope she wouldn’t get paired up with Peeta because her luck never seemed to work that way. So when she heard “Everdeen and Mellark,” she audibly groaned.

“Come on, Katniss,” he teased from the opposite side of the small grass plain they were utilizing. “Gimme all you got.” How this guy expected to be successful as a Peace Keeper was beyond her.

Peeta’s task was to attack Katniss. Katniss’ was to defend herself and not allow Peeta through. It seemed easy enough when the C.O.’s demonstrated it against each other, but as soon as Peeta got into his ready stance and Katniss could see all the muscles in his arms and shoulders flex, her stomach dropped. She had no idea how she was going to be able to stop the guy who was on pace to breaking at least one strength record during his official test. She took a deep breath and got into her own defensive stance, willing herself to keep her eyes on him the entire time and not show her fear.

It took him nothing at all to spin past her. Three times. And every time she got more and more annoyed with him and frustrated with herself. As they lined up for their final defense, an idea came to her that would finally give her the upper edge. He came toward her again, but before he could spin, she lifted her leg, kicking the upper part of his thigh as hard as she could to send him toppling to the ground.

“What the hell?” He snapped, rubbing the spot where she kicked him. “Cheap shot!”

“What was that?” She turned back toward him with a challenging stare.

He threw his hands up in annoyance and tried to stand up. “Did you let that show with the arrows get to your head? It’s a training exercise!”

“Don’t be such a pussy.”

“Don’t be such a bitch.”

It took three C.O.s to pull the two apart once she leapt at him. “That’s it!” Atala yelled at the pair. “My office, both of you!”

Katniss’ glare increased when she glanced over at his smirking face like he won some prize or something. “Shit,” she swore again and stomped to the main building to wait for Atala to finish the morning session.

* * *

It was night time before she saw Peeta again that day. She was on her way back from visiting with Gale and other members of the Star Squad who apparently couldn’t wait to talk to the girl who shot an arrow at the pair of C.O.s. Peeta was leaning against the side of the barracks and she would have passed right by him if he hadn’t turned at that exact moment, the moon catching a reflection in his eyes.

“What’d she say to you?” He asked, rolling what she initially thought was a cigarette, but as she approached him she realized was a joint, between his fingers.

“That I better watch myself and not let other recruits get in my head. You?”

He laughed and stuck the joint between his lips. “You’ve got quite a future, Mellark, as long as you pull your pretty little head out of your pretty little ass and stop tormenting the other recruits,” he answered in a perfect mimic of C.O. Atala. He pulled an old lighter from his pockets, lit the joint and inhaled deeply. “She sure has a way of setting a guy straight, huh?”

Peeta offered her a drag, which she accepted. She didn’t smoke often, but after feeling like a child being scolded and suffering through another excruciating seminar, she wasn’t in a position to turn down a way to relax. “You can kicked out if they catch you with that.”

“Is that so?” He raised both of his eyebrows, pretending like this was new information. “Do I need to be worried about you turning me in?”

She exhaled a long puff of smoke and handed the joint back to him. “You should be more worried about me outscoring you on the final day.”

“Oh look who’s the jokester,” he chuckled. “Just wait until I get my distance time down.” He leaned his head back against the wall to stare up at the sky. “Sorry about earlier,” he said in a quiet voice. “For calling you a bitch. That was totally out of line.”

Katniss shrugged. “I took a cheap shot. I just got frustrated that you kept getting past me.”

“Do you play chess?”

“What?” She asked, thrown by the left-field question. “No, why?”

Peeta took a long drag of the joint and blew the smoke up into the sky, temporarily blocking the stars. “Chess is all about looking three steps ahead, seeing the bigger picture. I was able to get past you because I was watching you, anticipating your moves, and staying ahead of you. You, on the other hand, focused on what I was doing, not where I was going. It’s the same reason you struggle in seminars.”

“I don’t struggle in seminars,” she retorted, even though he was right. “Not that much, anyway.”

“You struggle,” he continued, “because you are short sighted during case studies. It’s not a bad thing, not in the real world, but in the Academy they want someone who can look beyond what’s being presented. Someone who can see the whole picture, the greater outcome.” He offered her the last of the joint and turned to head back into the barracks. “See the forest, not the trees or some shit like that. It’s a chess game. Night, Katniss.”

Katniss watched him retreat into the shadows, confused by their interaction and his advice. It was clear that the seminar instructors loved the way Peeta answered their questions and provided answers to their trickier case studies, but she always just assumed it was because he studied harder for those ones or heard some detail she hadn’t, not that he was thinking about them differently. She didn’t even realize there was a different way to think about them.

But what confused her more was how freely he gave her that advice. Today had been the first time they had gotten into an actual physical confrontation but it wasn’t like he had ever been outright nice to her. Every word he said was a taunt laced with arrogance, every look was a cocky challenge. Nothing he seemed to do was kind. Not toward her, anyway. From the first moment they met, he seemed intent on making sure she knew they were competitors, even though everyone else described him as ‘nice,’ or ‘funny,’ or ‘friendly toward everyone!’

She shook her head and snuffed out the joint with her shoe. He was clearly just trying to get in her head and she couldn’t afford to let him. There were only a few more weeks before their final exams and she needed to focus to get onto the Star Squad. And no one, especially not Peeta Mellark, was going to stop her from reaching her goal.

* * *

Running was relaxing for Katniss, so at the end of the first week, she slipped into her sweats and headed out to the nature trail to get a run in before too many other recruits took advantage of it. As she was stretching, she noticed another body starting to leisurely jog at the beginning of the trail. He moved to slip his hoodie off his head, exposing the head of blond hair that still managed to hold curls despite being cropped close to conform to the Academy’s dress code. She didn’t want to admit that she admired him taking extra time to work on his problem areas, but his advice about thinking about the bigger picture helped her impress one of her seminar instructors. She supposed she owed him something and Katniss hated owing people things.

She easily caught up to him, even starting a few minutes after he did on the trail. “Breathe evenly,” she said, giving the back of his head a swat to catch his attention.

His frown transformed into a thankful smile when she demonstrated what she meant and the two kept a quiet, moderate pace for about a mile before he slowed down with his hands at his side. “I think I’m going to puke,” he wheezed.

“Just a few more miles,” she called back, slowing down to allow him to catch up. “End of the trail is right up here.” She grinned when she saw the determined look on his face as she sped up to get even with her again. He was definitely struggling but she couldn’t miss the rhythmic, even breaths he was focusing on. They reached a small clearing at the end of the path and she leaned against a tree, her hands on the top of her head, while he collapsed on a bench near the water fountain. “Not bad for a start,” she commented. “Keep upright, it’ll be easier to get air in.”

“Why are you helping me?”

She shrugged. “You helped me. Seems only fair to return the favor.”

When he finally regained steady control of his breathing, he leaned back on the bench and pulled a joint out of the pockets of his sweatpants.

“How did you end up here?” She asked in disbelief at how open he was with his minor drug use. From how easily he seemed to obtain and smoke weed at the academy, she knew it wasn’t his first experience. Yet somehow he was able to pass the background and drug screening that was completed when they arrived.

He chuckled. “Maybe I’m infiltrating the system. A rebel in disguise.”

“Hardly,” she snorted, reaching her hand out for the joint. He held onto it, taking a long drag and waving her over. When she got close, he moved in toward her lips and exhaled directly into her mouth. “What the hell?” She shouted, jumping away from him.

“It’s just a joke. Calm down, Everdeen,” he answered, handing her the joint to smoke on her own.

She glared at him. “Oh yeah, sexual assault is right up there with knock-knocks on my list of favorites.”

Peeta put his hands up in defense. “Sorry. I figured you’d shotgunned before. I’ll make sure to ask next time.”

The way he said ‘next time,’ like he was so certain it would happen again should have annoyed Katniss. Instead it did the opposite. Her heart was still pounding from being so close to him, in such an oddly intimate moment with this man she thought she hated. No, she knew she hated him. Which didn’t explain why, when he was leaning toward her, her stomach tightened in anticipation. Or why she focused on how long and blonde his eyelashes were. Or how soft his lips looked. She shook her head, it must have been the post-run endorphins making her go crazy. “I’m headin back,” she announced, walking back to the path. “Come on.”

Peeta left her alone for a few days, not even looking at her when they crossed paths. Which suit her just fine. Except that it didn’t. It annoyed her even more than when he paid her too much attention. She could not figure out what was wrong with her other than she missed the somewhat friendly competition.

She was finishing up in the weight room the next time he spoke to her. He stood over the bench she was laying on and helped her lift the barbell back up into it’s place. “Another jog in the forest?” He asked with that trademark smirk.

She sighed and sat up, wiping the sweat from her forehead. “I’ve had enough for the day.”

“Sure you have,” he answered. “See you around, then.” He walked out of the room, not even bothering to look over his shoulder to know she was still watching him.

“Shit,” she muttered, cursing the butterflies in her stomach that felt like bats. When she caught up to him on the path, she smacked the back of his head again. “Breath evenly.” She ran a few paces, purposely listening to his breathing, annoyed that he wasn’t taking her advice. Reaching up, she smacked the back of his head again.

“Knock it off!” He swung an arm out and caught her wrist, making them both stop where they were. His grip around her wrist tightened and he pulled her close. So close that his eyes were no long blue, but electric blue with a half-ring of even darker blue around the top. His tongue slipped out to lick his lips between heavy breaths.

Katniss took in deep gulps of air, her legs feeling weak despite only just starting her run. She could hear her erratic heartbeat in her ears, unwilling to slow no matter how much she wished it would. She surprised herself by being the one to lurch forward, to move them both until his back slammed against a tree trunk. Their lips met hungrily, their hands pawed at each other in a mix of desire and anger, passion and protest. She growled when he pulled at the end of her braid, forcing her head up, attaching his lips to the soft skin of her neck at her pulse point. He pulled her flush against him and she could feel him growing hard beneath her.

His hand slipped down her side to the waistband of her sweats. When he hesitated, she thrust herself against him, unable and unwilling to stop her body. Her mind was in a fog but every electric impulse in her was firing full force. So when his fingers slipped under her sweats and pushed her panties aside, she encouraged him with by biting the fleshy lobe of his ear. He groaned loudly, too loudly.

She covered his mouth with hers as he slid a finger inside her. “Fuck,” he panted against her mouth, twisting inside her to make her whimper and shake. He added a second and together they found a rhythm that had her panting and sweating quicker than she thought possible. Her body wound up tight and in a burst, her muscles pulsed and she cried out through her orgasm. She collapsed against his body, her head resting on his shoulder while he planted soft kisses to her crown and temple.

“Shit,” she muttered, her eyes flying open at the realization of what had happened. “Shit!” She pushed away from him, made sure her sweatpants were fully pulled up and sprinted away back toward the barracks in a cloud of confusion and embarrassment and what had just happened. 

What she had wanted to happen. 

But what most definitely could not happen ever again. 


End file.
